Lake County Voices of Reason Launches Online Museum

TAVARES, FLORIDA:

In response to Lake County’s distinction as the only county in
America seeking to import and install a Confederate monument, the non-partisan and non-profit organization Lake County Voices of Reason (LCVOR) is launching what is believed to be America’s first “online-only” museum (www.lakecountyhistoricalmuseum.com

While the ongoing purpose of the virtual museum will be to address civic issues vital to Lake County’s citizens, its initial mission will be to block the installation of a highly controversial and hurtful Jim-Crow era
artifact: A 1922 statue of slave-holding Confederate general Edmund Kirby-Smith.

The 2018 decision to house the statue in the historic county courthouse sparked nearly two years of public protests and raised concerns of collusion among public officials; concerns that grew with the release of previously withheld government communications that revealed a pattern of deception by members of the Lake County Historical Museum
and Lake County Commission.

Following assistance from State Senator Dennis Baxley and State Representative Anthony Sabatini, museum director Bob Grenier created a backstory which legitimized the statue’s transfer from the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall to the Lake County courthouse.

The fallout was immediate. Knowing the courthouse was where numerous African-American prisoners were tortured or killed by a murderous sheriff between the 1940s and 1970s, marches and organized protests led to community leaders obtaining more than 2,000 pages of documents via independent research and public records requests.
Now housed in the virtual museum, the documents allow visitors to follow a chain of misstatements by museum and public officials designed to convince citizens the county’s historical museum was the only suitable site for the statue.

“The trail of communications reveals the arguments presented to and accepted by the majority of county commissioners were false,” explains LCVOR president Cassandra Brown. “They were misled from the beginning although, sadly, some chose to continue misleading the public even after the truth came to light.”

Along with emails, correspondence, meeting agendas, and minutes, the virtual museum includes recordings of commission meetings as well as news coverage of the controversy. The collection, housed in galleries such as Public Records Requests, Board of Commissioners Gallery, and Bob’s Basement, conveys the serious and important
message that openness in government and trust in local leaders are essential in creating and building successful communities.

To that end, the LCVOR recently filed a lawsuit against the Lake County Board of Commissioners alleging a violation of Florida’s Sunshine Laws in its handling of this issue. “These important documents underscore that message,” explains Brown. “They reveal how, when officials work clandestinely to dismiss the will of the people and deceive the
public, they are sowing the seeds of distrust. These documents are ones that every taxpayer, student, researcher, and concerned citizen should see and understand.”