UF Historic St. Augustine has Loring memorial on agenda again.

When UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc. convenes its next Board of Directors meeting, the controversial William Wing Loring memorial will be the first matter of business to be discussed, according to the agenda provided to Historic City News today.

The group administers the lease of historic buildings owned by the Board of Trustees of Florida’s Internal Improvement Trust Fund. In two previous meetings of the direct service organization, the panel has heard testimony from invited members as well as members of the public who have expressed their concerns over demands by AME pastor Ronald Rawls Jr of Gainesville, to remove Loring’s century-old burial place from public display.

Rawls and a persistent group of 20-30 protestors from Jacksonville, Palm Coast, and as far away as Tampa, are upset with the outcome of a unanimous 5-0 vote of the St Augustine City Commission in October 2017 that made permanent the placement of a nearly 150-year-old confederate veteran memorial in the Plaza de la Constitucion.

IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND, the meeting will be held at the Governor’s House Museum, located at 48 King Street in St. Augustine, on November 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There is no admission charge to attend the public meeting. Usually, the Board allows a three-minute per person opportunity for public comments.