Confederate monuments toppled, damaged, burned
Southern-city protesters target statues, buildings
Protests in response to the death of George Floyd – a handcuffed black man who was asphyxiated as a white police officer knelt on his neck – once again spotlighted frustration over the presence of Confederate monuments in some cities as anger over police brutality and racism intensified over the last week.
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was toppled from its pedestal in front of the namesake high school in Montgomery, Alabama, Monday night.
Cheers went up among a small crowd gathered to watch the fallen stone general as cars circled the area and honked. As the statue was driven away, the crowd sang a brief, “Hey, he-ey, goodbye.”
The statue was overturned on a state holiday commemorating Jefferson Davis’ birthday. It is one of three Alabama holidays celebrating the Confederacy, a government that rested on the principle of white supremacy.
Montgomery police acknowledged Monday night that people had been arrested in the incident, though didn’t offer any other details.
“The statue was damaged and there are suspects in custody. Charges are pending,” Montgomery police Capt. Saba Coleman said.
The Montgomery Public School district announced Tuesday that the statute had been moved to storage. Any decisions about the statue or the name of the school will be left to the school board, said City spokesman Griffith Waller.
Monuments in several other Southern cities were the site of protests over the weekend.
A statue outside the Tennessee State Capitol of Edward Carmack, a controversial former lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views, was torn down Saturday.
The Robert E. Lee memorial on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, was covered in graffiti Saturday night, as was the Stonewall Jackson statute. The headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was similarly tagged and set on fire, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The Confederate Defenders statute along the Battery in Charleston, South
Carolina, was spray-painted. A peaceful protest there the next morning was dispersed, the Post and Courier reported.
The brass cast of Charles Linn in Birmingham, Alabama, was left lying on the ground Sunday night, dismantled from its base. Then Monday night, crews with heavy equipment attached straps to the 50-foot-tall obelisk of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in the same park, working at the direction of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to remove the 115-year-old stone memorial.
The monument had been at the center of a fight between the city and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, according to AL.com. The city lost a legal battle to have it removed.
AL.com reports Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he will work quickly to remove it, but did not provide a time frame.
And it wasn’t just monuments. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, a crowd set fire to the Market House, a National Historic Landmark constructed in 1832 on the site of the old Statehouse. It was used as a Town Hall and marketplace and was the site of the sale of slaves.
In recent years, the presence of Confederate monuments has come under intense scrutiny. Many were removed after violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
Floyd’s death may spark new calls for additional removals as demonstrations continue.
The headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was ... tagged and set on fire, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.