SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — As cities nationwide remove landmarks named after Confederate or racially-charged figures, an online petition is demanding San Diego do the same at Mount Hope Cemetery.
A Change.org petition is asking Mayor Kevin Faulconer to remove a memorial to Confederate soldiers at Mount Hope Cemetery.
"Why does the City of San Diego expect black citizens, literal descendants of the very people the monument celebrates enslaving, oppressing, and terrorizing, to maintain such a horrific monument?" the petition says.
The petition has nearly 900 or 1,000 requested signatures.
The monument was erected in 1948 on a plot owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who supporters call such markers, testaments to history.
Both Union and Confederate soldiers are buried in the cemetery.
10news found the monument stone heavily damaged, with pieces scattered around the monument. Sources tell us the vandalism is a recent and ongoing issue.
The monument isn't the only one in San Diego that has been subject to Change.org efforts. In 2017, the city removed a marker from Horton Plaza Park that commemorated the Jefferson Davis Highway, named for the Confederate leader.
Fast forward to Wednesday, the city removed another marker from the park, this time commemorating Robert E. Lee Highway.
"Robert E. Lee Highway marker is gone. Many thanks to city Park & Rec staff and Stockdale Capital Partners for getting this done," Councilmember Mark Kersey tweeted.
The difference between Horton Plaza Park and the cemetery plot: the plot is privately owned. In the past, city officials say their hands are tied.
"We support the removal from a private plot on City land and of a Confederate statue. Such statues are symbols of division that represent a horrendous past and glorify white supremacy. Such statues do not belong in a place of peace; they celebrate instead slavery (1620-1865) and the Jim Crow (1877-1964). The City should not have such symbols of intolerance and hatred on its property," said Francine Maxwell, President of the San Diego branch of the NAACP.
