", Whitmire, Kyle (June 3, 2020) "Birmingham’s Confederate monument is gone, but what lies beneath is still there.". Mrs A. [14][15][16], Monument to the Confederacy in Birmingham, Alabama, List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests, "Confederate Monument Being Removed After Birmingham Mayor Vows To 'Finish The Job, "UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS. (November 10, 1904), "Confederate Monument is Unveiled in Capitol Park." On August 15, 2017, in the wake of a violent rally of white nationalists gathered to oppose the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mayor Bell ordered that the monument should be covered and walled off until a legal means of removing it could be established. Local officials in Alabama’s largest city, which has a majority black population, removed a 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in the city’s Linn Park after protestors and demonstrators vandalized it Sunday. TO THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER & SAILOR The cornerstone for the base for a future monument was laid during the 1894 Reunion of United Confederate Veterans in Birmingham, on April 26, a date observed as Confederate Decoration Day, the anniversary of General Joseph Johnston's surrender to Union General William Sherman at Bennett Place, North Carolina in 1865. The campaign received more than $60,000 in less than 24 hours. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in downtown Birmingham’s Linn Park, named for Confederate naval Capt. APRIL 26, 1905. The completed monument was formally dedicated on April 26, 1905, now observed for the first time, statewide as "Confederate Memorial Day". ", Edgemon, Erin (August 15, 2017) "Birmingham covers Confederate monument as city considers removal. Judge Mike Graffeo dismissed the suit in November. The city erected a plywood wall around the Confederate monument to obscure the plaques on it in 2017, effectively challenging a state law that makes removal of historic monuments illegal. Over the next few years, the plinth remained empty. A number of Alabama towns had said that they would be willing to take the monument when the city of Birmingham had sought to move it. SEE ALSO: State Of Emergency Declared In Birmingham, City Under Curfew Photo by Jay Reeves AP. In the event, more contributions did arrive, and once $4,000 was raised, the Pelham Chapter, now with Mrs Rountree as its president, commissioned stone contractor L. N. Archer to fabricate and install the obelisk. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a new lawsuit against the city of Birmingham Tuesday for removing a Confederate monument in Linn Park. Clisby's successors carried the torch and made annual appeals for funds through the Birmingham News. Marshall appealed Graffeo's ruling to the Alabama Supreme Court, which reversed Graffeo, instructing him to order the city to remove the barricade and pay a $25,000 fine. ", Bryant, Joseph D. (July 1, 2015) "Birmingham city officials take steps to remove Confederate monument at Linn Park. In their report they merely recommended that the park "is generally considered as a possible civic center and should, if possible, be so planned and developed.". The Alabama Attorney General filed suit against the city of Birmingham for violating the statute. It was brought back in 2017 and passed both houses of the legislature. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Birmingham, Ala., seen here in 2016, has been the subject of legal controversy in recent years. The Birmingham Park and Recreation Board voted on July 1 to pursue relocating the monument by consulting with attorneys and with the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Attempts to topple the obelisk were unsuccessful. The monument was dismantled and removed in 2020. Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall filed an anticipated lawsuit against the city of Birmingham over the city's removal of a Confederate monument. The Confederate monument in Birmingham's Linn Park has been fully removed. The Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument was a 52-foot-tall sandstone obelisk located at the southern entrance of Linn Park, at the terminus of 20th Street North. In 1894 the park, then known as Capitol Park, held no other monuments and was decorated only by the Hudgins' fountain at its center. Ala. --Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued the following statement in response to attempts to destroy the 115-year-old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Birmingham’s Linn Park. The east face of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument is shown in Linn Park in Birmingham. [2] and contained a Bible and Confederate flag. https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Confederate_Soldiers_&_Sailors_Monument Charles Linn, had been the target of … The act, which would also prevent the renaming of public buildings, streets, bridges and parks, made an exception for any such removals undertaken for transportation projects. That evening, during a citywide emergency curfew, the monument was removed from the park. ", Whitmire, Kyle (June 1, 2020) "When a Confederate monument wouldn’t fall, rioters turned on Birmingham. DEATH, WAS THE CROWNING ", Almond, Mark (July 2, 2015) "A close-up look at Birmingham's embattled Confederate monument. 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 pleaded with the … On Sunday, demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama, attempted to take down a hated 115-year-old Confederate statue. The monument was dismantled and removed in 2020. The Confederate monument in Birmingham's Linn Park has been fully removed. The partially-obscured Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument stands next to another Confederate statue at Birmingham, Alabama's Linn Park on August 18, 2017. ", Hrynkiw, Ivana (April 13, 2018) "AG, Birmingham attorneys argue over Confederate memorial. JEFFERSON DAVIS. Protesters have brought two Confederate monuments to the ground. The city enforced a curfew the following night. [11][12] The state Attorney General responded by filing a new lawsuit against the city council saying[13] the removal was in violation of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, a law passed specifically to prevent the removal of this monument. The Confederate Veterans honors the soldiers and sailors who fought for the Confederacy in the War between the States from 1861 to 1865. ERECTED BY PELHAM CHAPTER No. During the Alabama State Legislature's 2016 session, State Senator Gerald Allen of Tuscaloosa introduced a bill he called the "Alabama Heritage Protection Act" which would "prohibit the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of certain commemorative statues, monuments, memorials, or plaques which are located on public property," without being granted an express waiver from the state legislature. [3] The slab of rock was unused for several years, though a surplus artillery piece from the Spanish–American War of 1898 once rested on it. 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 south end of the park probably must be retained although there may be some possibility of changing its position." 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