3 Female Judges Side with Pensacola Iconoclasts

November 4, 2025

Pensacola, FL – Save Southern Heritage FL announces today that the 1st District Court of Appeal, after more than two years, affirmed the decision of the lower court to dismiss the litigation charging the City of Pensacola wrongfully removed the historic Cenotaph from Lee Square in Pensacola.

Other plaintiffs in the case include the Ladies Memorial Association, who initially raised funds for and erected the memorial. The memorial to "Our Confederate Dead" was erected in 1891, after many years of fundraising and included tributes to Florida Governor Edward Aylsworth Perry, Former US Senator and CSA Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory and CSA President Jefferson Davis. The original founder were ladies from the area, including Angela Mallory, Ann Chipley, Annie J. McGuire and Laura Thornton.

"We are disappointed in the Court's decision but will continue to pursue the restoration of the Cenotaph by any means possible," said David McCallister, attorney for Plaintiffs.  "The loss of this historic property is not just important to us but to the people of Florida who lost their cultural inheritance in the City's hasty removal," McCallister added.  “We assert this case is of exceptional importance.  It transcends the interests of the immediate parties and affects the broader public interest,” he said.

A 2023 Cygnal poll shows Floridians support legislation that would protect historical monuments and memorials, including those to Confederate veterans: 2 to 1 indicating Floridians’ interest in local history. 

McCallister said "the court did not provide any justification or their decision.  It was a one-word answer: ‘affirmed.’  I feel my clients are entitled to a better explanation of the court's basis for this decision".

An all-female panel of judges issued the opinion, comprised of Judge Lori S. Rowe, Judge Stephanie W. Ray, and Judge M. Kemmerly Thomas.

The Memorial was jettisoned by the Pensacola City Council under Mayor Grover Robinson in July 2020, during the COVID pandemic, when citizens were prohibited from attending the meeting in person and during a time when riots and civil unrest resulted in the removal of numerous American historic monuments including Abraham Lincoln, George Washingto,n and Christopher Columbus. The memorial was removed in October 2020 between Hurricane Sally and Hurricane Zeta.

President Trump recently ordered the National Park Service to restore and re-erect a historic monument in Washington, D.C., honoring Albert Pike which was torn down by a mob in June 2020. Pike, a Massachusetts-born lawyer, author, poet, and prominent Freemason who resided in Arkansas, where he served briefly as a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army, but who later resigned.  The Memorial was reinstalled in Judicial Square in October.

Also on August 5, Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth announced plans to restore the "Reconciliation Memorial" identified for removal by the Congressional Naming Commission which was removed from Arlington National Cemeter by the Biden Administration in December 2023.

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About Save Southern Heritage FL

Save Southern Heritage, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation that educates and advocates on behalf of Southern heritage and history. It was started in 2015 in response to the knee-jerk anti-Southern institutionalized bullying and "eracism" levied against the people of South Carolina by then-governor Nikki Haley, after she broke all previous agreements about how South Carolina's historic veterans and their symbols should be treated and respected.

The Florida branch was activated in January 2015, in response to three initiatives in the Florida Legislature that are part of a continuing hate campaign led by anti-American extremists who refuse to respect the various cultures that make up the fabric of Florida society. Since that time, it has grown in membership and has been active in battles over American history throughout Florida, including the "We'll Remember in November Campaign" that resulted in #heritagehater candidates losing elections in Florida and non-haters winning.