Someone had set a fire at the statue’s feet. It’s not right. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. The Linn Park statue honors the legacy of those who enslaved, tortured and murdered the ancestors of African-Americans, and it does so in a majority African American city that does not want it there, the city argued. The cornerstone of the Monument plinth was laid during the 1894 Reunion of United Confederate Veterans on Confederate Decoration Day, April 26. On Monday, crews went … Alabama lawmakers seemed ready to amend the law to be even more punitive but that bill died when coronavirus pandemic cut the 2020 session short. Graffiti is show on the damaged base of a Confederate memorial that was removed overnight in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. "I've been saying there was going to be a breaking point with police brutality," she said. Robert Walker poses for a photograph on the remains of a Confederate memorial that was removed overnight in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. The City of Mobile joined Birmingham in taking down Confederate monuments, and when the City of Huntsville announced its intentions to do the … But that thing they all came to destroy was still there. About halfway there, I saw the orange light reflecting off the county courthouse wall. The city took down the … Several dozen linked arms along the Park Place sidewalk in front of the Confederate monument, but hundreds of others began marching southward down 20th Street and through the heart of the city’s business district. When I got there, a couple hundred protesters had gathered and a handful were already chipping with sledgehammers at the base of the century-old statue. Had they been successful, the monument would have crushed the truck and likely killed or injured bystanders. Throughout the evening the protesters grew frustrated with toppling the Confederate monument and turned their attention to other artifacts around Linn Park. It survived for nearly three more years after Mayor William Bell had a plywood box built around its base and painted black in 2017. Our governor is better than your governor. He stopped short of having it removed because the state passed a law earlier that year aimed at keeping it and similarly fraught objects from being torn down. Johnson is a radio host and a comedian, but his speech to a handful of protesters in Linn Park was serious. Protesters with a truck and chains try to topple a Confederate monument in Linn Park during a protest. On Jefferson Davis Day, no less. Protestors attempted to topple a century-old Confederate monument in Linn Park Sunday night before rioting in downtown Birmingham. I can’t tell you where it all started. Marshall said taking the historic monument down is in violation of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act. Local reports noted the Confederate statue memorializing Charles Linn, captain of the Confederate Navy, in Birmingham was, in fact, torn down using … Between the attempts, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin walked into the middle of the crowd, which had then grown by hundreds, with a bullhorn. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has made good on his promise by ordering the removal of one of Alabama’s most prominent Confederate monuments. Hundreds of onlookers abandoned their places around the Confederate monument and swarmed. How about never? Before I reached the grocery store Sunday night my wife called to say I should probably go to Linn Park instead. I crossed paths with coworkers and colleagues from other media. During his visit for the Olmsted Brothers' 1925 report and recommendations for "A Park System for Birmingham" landscape architect W. B. Marquis wrote that "The Confederate Monument located on the axis of 20th St. at the so… I walked around freely. For the last three years, the city and state have been in a legal battle over the monument in court, with state Attorney General Steve Marshall fighting to preserve it. The Confederate monument had to come down, he said. One of my colleagues, Shauna Stuart, was live-streaming an impassioned speech in Linn Park by Jermaine “Funnymaine” Johnson. And the most important. In its legal briefs, the city was blunt. The site operated from 1902-1939 as a haven for disabled or indigent veterans of the. by Jessica Leigh Hester June 5, 2020 How an Infamous Confederate Obelisk Finally Came Down For generations in this town, it was a constant reminder of the losing faction in a war that ended four decades before it was installed. Through all the struggles and triumphs of the civil rights era, it stood as a physical representation of bloody nineteenth-century efforts to try to keep slavery intact. In 2015, Birmingham’s park board approved a resolution to remove the 52-foot-tall monument. Protesters who gathered for a demonstration in Linn Park on Sunday night defaced monuments in the park and, as they left, smashed windows and vandalized buildings along downtown … An unidentified man walks past a toppled statue of Charles Linn, a city founder who was in the Confederate Navy, in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday, June 1, 2020, following a night of unrest after protests calling for justice for George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Three years ago, not long after the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Virginia, then-Mayor William Bell had a crude plywood box built around the Confederate monument in Linn Park. Two doughboy statues … Tom Gordon, BirminghamWatch. All rights reserved (About Us). A tall man with a baseball cap over his dreadlocks beat the base of the statue with a blunt side of an ax. The cohesion of the crowd was suddenly gone. RELATED: This is our history - how white supremacy still thrives in Alabama. This is the most dangerous election. In front of the Harbert Center, someone set fire to a flag. Following the removal of the Confederate monument in Birmingham's Linn Park Monday night, Attorney General Steve Marshall announced another lawsuit against the City Tuesday afternoon. The demonstration, which started out peacefully but ultimately devolved into violence and extensive property damage in downtown Birmingham, represented a cry for justice by a people fed up with the seemingly endless series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of U.S. law enforcement officers. On Sunday, the obelisk — known formally as the Confederate Sailors and Soldiers Monument — was the site of a speech from Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who … Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (each updated 1/1/21). Source: Solomon Crenshaw Jr. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has vowed to remove a controversial Confederate monument from Linn Park “as soon as possible.”. Confederate Memorial Barrier Illegal, Alabama Supreme Court Says - Birmingham, AL - A barrier around a Confederate monument in Birmingham's Linn Park has been ruled illegal by … The protesters looped one end of the rope about a third of the way up the obelisk and hitched the other end to the back of a red GMC pickup truck. But with that flame at Jefferson’s feet, there had been an escalation. A few feet from me, two young women began hurling large chunks of sandstone, chipped from the monument, through windows at the Birmingham Board of Education headquarters. I moved with them. As of 24 June 2020 , there are at least 122 public spaces with Confederate monuments in Alabama. Tonight. I spoke with a few people I knew. The city took down the more than 50-foot-tall obelisk following protests over the police death … Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Somebody change the channel. And on Instagram. Hey, Georgia! The doomed memorial stood high over Birmingham when black smoke from even taller steel plant smokestacks still choked people's lungs on hot summer days. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has demanded that the city of Birmingham pay a $25,000 fine for removing a Confederate statue in violation of … Congrats, Twitter, you’ve been Jeff Session-ized, Alabama’s Black Belt is in trouble, again. When will Alabama? I wondered how long it would take someone to find the statue of Jefferson on the east side of the park. Finding meaning in the ruins of coronavirus and Legos. A statue of Charles Linn, a blockade runner in the Confederate navy and an early Birmingham industrialist after whom the park is named, was an early casualty. It remained in place as Bull Connor, likely the most infamous and reviled police chief in American history, ordered his men to sic snarling dogs on nonviolent protesters in Kelly Ingram Park, a few short blocks away. Birmingham will be hit with a $25,000 fine. Johnson and other leaders of the group admonished the crowd against damaging any other property. The odd thing about the protest in Linn Park was that through much of it, I felt perfectly safe. But I can tell you where it turned — the fire someone set at Thomas Jefferson’s feet. Instead, their two attempts ended with two broken ropes. Late last year, Birmingham lost the court fight, but the Alabama Supreme Court said then that the worst the state could do to Birmingham was a $25,000 fine. But it is just the latest in a series of injustices that black people in Alabama and beyond are no longer willing to put up with, according to Mia Speights, a black Birmingham resident who came out to the park on Monday to show her support for the cause. There’s no other word to describe what happened and still be honest. A few strangers who knew my work said hello to me. The death of George Floyd, who was killed on video last month by a police officer in Minneapolis, shocked the nation and drove many thousands of Americans into streets from Alabama to Alaska. All that’s left of the Confederate memorial in downtown Birmingham’s Linn Park is a graffiti-covered base. A few folks wrapped bungee lines around the monument and rope line pulled in vain against the 50 ft. tower of solid granite. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Workers in Alabama’s largest city began removing a Confederate monument Monday night after demonstrators failed to knock down the obelisk the night before. A statue of Charles Linn, a blockade runner in the Confederate navy and an early Birmingham industrialist after whom the park is named, was an early casualty. City council members wanted Bell to tear the bleak statue down, but Bell sought to buy time and avoid attracting another hoard of neo-Confederates to Birmingham. If this town was 71% Jewish, we wouldn’t have a statue of Adolf Hitler.”. As a black mayor running a major city in which over 70 percent of residents are African-American, Woodfin probably didn’t hurt his local political future much by presiding over this historic moment. Skip Navigation Share on Facebook The monument in Birmingham, Alabama, became a flashpoint in the fight for racial justice. When it happened, the shift in the crowd was something I felt before I saw. © 2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Remember when Alabama lawmakers said porn was a public health emergency? After a few minutes of pleas from protest leaders, the crowd shifted again back toward the monument. On Monday night, the city of Birmingham commenced the removal of one of Alabama’s most prominent physical memorials to its racist history. The 52-foot-tall Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument towered over historic Linn Park for 115 years. Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall filed an anticipated lawsuit against the city of Birmingham over the city's removal of a Confederate monument. What I’ll take from the quarantine: My daughter’s first steps, Stop with the California comparisons, Kay Ivey, Lieutenant governor demands Alabama coronavirus task force do its job, If Alabama has to go back to work, so should the Legislature. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. And on Twitter. Birmingham's 1905 Confederate monument coming down. Floyd's death was the direct impetus for the Sunday protests in Birmingham that ultimately led to the dramatic removal of the monument in Linn Park a day later. 1514856906 1590999392. For more than a century, a 52-foot obelisk has stood in the center of Birmingham, Ala., a monument to Confederate soldiers and sailors who fought in the Civil War.. You could say that it started with the Civil War. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument was a commemorative obelisk that was erected in Linn Park, Birmingham, Alabama in 1905. George Wallace, who personified state-sanctioned racism in the U.S. As the sun set, more people trickled into the park. I don’t know when or how it will end. Easily the most visible legacy of the young mayor's tenure to date is his decision to defy the state and bring a construction crew in to dismantle the monument and take it down piece by piece with a crane bearing a massive hook, the long chunks carted away on the back of a flatbed truck. The Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Linn Park was commissioned by the Pelham Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and dedicated in 1905. Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. This was not a new demand, either, and Johnson was not the first person to make it. Two doughboy statues on either side of the Confederate monument were targets later. But this was a moment that took place outside the horse race of electoral politics. Others yelled at them to stop. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. It was a disaster. The time to expand Medicaid is now. But further down the street, more glass shattered. It turned into a riot. The obelisk was there through the entire tenure of Gov. Confederate Memorial Park is the site of Alabama's only Confederate Soldiers' Home. That decision, which results from violent protests that erupted in downtown … Robert Walker poses for a photograph on the remains of a Confederate memorial that was removed overnight in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday, June … Mayor Randall Woodfin had promised to remove the monument by Tuesday to stop any more of the violent reactions like those seen Sunday … BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed a new lawsuit against the City of Birmingham for its removal of the Confederate monument in Linn Park. ultimately devolved into violence and extensive property damage. The base of the Confederate monument in Linn Park. Someone shouted that they were going to Five Points, but the mass of people began to fracture a block or two away from the park and take detours down the city’s east/west avenues. The obelisk was taken apart and loaded onto a flatbed truck Monday night, a day after it sparked protests and looting of nearby businesses. You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. The then-mayor of Birmingham Mel Drennen cosigned and said that his city’s new Confederate monument “memorialized … a cause that will ever remain fresh in the memories of our Southern people.” And behind them, they left the obelisk. The monument’s base had been placed in 1894, the same year in which the Newsletter July 2015 Photograph, 1905. Birmingham takes down Confederate monument after 115 ... - al A short while later, colleagues of mine were assaulted in front of the Alabama Power building. Birmingham Age-Herald, April 27, 1905, p. 5. But it couldn't survive for even a full day after a large-scale rally saw another racially divisive monument destroyed by protesters and a statue of Thomas Jefferson burned just feet away on Sunday. Mo Brooks spouts nonsense, Ivey finds her nerve. Mayor Says Confederate Monument Will Be Removed From Linn Park. The Confederate memorial was scarred from hundreds of hammer blows and defaced with scribblings in spray paint. Alabama’s secret prison plan puts public information into quarantine, It’s not the Alabama State House that needs replacing, As cases there lead state, Mobile mayor wants to reopen. You could say that it started with the killing of George Floyd. Although the monument had been damaged during Sunday night’s riots, Birmingham has been trying to take the statue down for years. Shortly after that, someone found the statue of Thomas Jefferson. Some booed him while others chanted, “Stand with us!”. That was three months ago. The Alabama Supreme Court has upheld a state law barring cities from moving or altering Confederate monuments.Justices on Wednesday reversed a circuit judge’s ruling that declared the law unenforceable because it violates the free speech rights of local communities.PDF: Alabama Supreme Court rulingCourt records show the state of Alabama has imposed a $25,000 fine on the City of Birmingham. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (each updated 1/1/21). Tom Gordon/BirminghamWatch. Only a few dozen protestors and interested folks showed up in the park on Monday afternoon and evening, but the force and scale of Sunday's events were enough to drive Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to commit to bringing the memorial down by noon Tuesday. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin defeated Bell in an election that fall, and he inherited the conundrum from his predecessor, just in time for the Alabama Legislature to pass a monuments law protecting the statue. The John Merrill Show is on again. As Andre McKoy, a black Birmingham resident who went to Linn Park Monday afternoon to show his support for the protest movement, put it: “Birmingham is 71% black but we’ve got a Confederate monument right downtown. Birmingham, the crucible of America's long racial divide and the site of some of the most brutal examples of its enforcement, is now without its largest confederate memorial for the first time in over a century. All rights reserved (About Us). Marshall said taking the historic monument down is in violation of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act. Men kicked over trash cans and struck park benches with sledgehammers. He asked the protesters to go home and give him a day to tear that statue down instead. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Or slavery. What had begun as a tight-knit crowd with a singular mission disintegrated into a meandering riot, destroying storefronts and setting fires. Confederate army, their wives, and widows. All while, in the middle of it all, dozens of young men, and a few women, whacked at a sandstone obelisk. But this night, Johnson pointed to that obelisk in the park and said it had to come down. The plywood was placed there on orders of former Birmingham Mayor William Bell after the state passed the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act in 2017 in response to calls for removal of Confederate monuments on public property. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. The monument was dismantled and removed in 2020. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed a new lawsuit against the City of Birmingham for its removal of the Confederate monument in Linn Park. Johnson told the crowd they should give the mayor a chance to follow through on his promise, but as some in the crowd cussed and jeered at the idea, he said it was up to them if they wanted to keep trying. "It started with Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, but George Floyd is the breaking point.". Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit against Birmingham. The amount of thought that went into this enterprise could be measured in feet — roughly 30 ft of rope to pull down a 50 ft. monument. © 2021 Advance Local Media LLC. It remained through the salad days of the Ku Klux Klan and the largely forgotten founding of the Black Panther Party in Lowndes County, 100 miles to Birmingham's south. Photo via Matthew Niblett for Bham Now On Monday night, June 1, the city of Birmingham began to dismantle the Confederate monument in Linn Park. Confederate monument in Linn Park after being defaced by protesters. And it will probably only raise his national political profile and stoke new suggestions that he run for state or national office. (Video above: Confederate monument in Birmingham's Linn Park removed)In the new lawsuit, Marshall says removing a historic monument violates the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which … You could say that it started with the election of Donald Trump. The majority of veterans served in Alabama outfits, while others moved to Alabama after the war. History. In Birmingham, Confederate Memorial Day was first observed as a school holiday on April 26, 1905, the day the Confederate Monument was unveiled. The possibility of removing the monument was implicit in the 1919 proposal by architects Frank Hartley Anderson, William Warren and Eugene Knight for a Memorial Civic Center that would serve as a comprehensive memorial with an emphasis on the recently-ended "Great War". The fate of the state seemed frozen in place until the events of the last week made the obelisk again a rallying point. By the end of the night, it would be a riot. Sunday evening my wife and I had just put our children to bed, and I was about to go on an evening grocery run when something seemed to be happening in Birmingham. The problem with writing about chaos is that any attempt to fit it into a neat narrative is arbitrary, and it’s not fair to Johnson to suggest he started it all. As cities and states grapple with the future of Confederate monuments, the Alabama Supreme Court has … Alabama’s governor went on Twitter for a coronavirus Q&A. And it didn't come down all through the Occupy protests nearly a decade ago and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of more recent years.