Mobile, Alabama, relocates Confederate statue to a museum

MOBILE, Ala. — A Confederate statue removed from Alabama’s port city earlier this month has been relocated to a museum, the city’s mayor said.

The History Museum of Mobile has received the bronze likeness of Admiral Raphael Semmes, which stood in a middle of a downtown street near the Mobile waterfront for 120 years until June 5, and “will develop a plan to protect, preserve and display within the museum” the statue and “place it into the appropriate historic context,” the city’s Mayor Sandy Stimpson said Sunday in a statement.

“I have no doubt that moving the statue from public display was the right thing to do for our community going forward. The values represented by this monument a century ago are not the values of Mobile in 2020,” Stimpson said in a statement.

Attorney General Steve Marshall had sent a June 5 letter to the mayor after the statue’s removal saying the city could be subject to a $25,000 fine for permanently moving the statue, an action that would violate a state law protecting monuments over 40 years old.

Marshall’s office did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment.

Marshall’s office has threatened legal action against the city of Birmingham, about 257 miles north of Mobile, for removing a confederate monument. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has said the potential $25,000 fine was worth the removal of the statue that had caused unrest in the majority-black city.

Stimpson said he believes “this action to be consistent” with the state law, and vowed to work with the attorney general’s office if they determine otherwise.