Protesters bring down Confederate statue during George Floyd unrest in Alabama
Using rocks, rope and a pickup truck, protesters gathered in Birmingham, Alabama worked to bring down a statue erected in honor of Confederate Navy captain Charles Linn.
The group gathered at Linn Park on Sunday following the “Birmingham, the World is Watching” Rally for Justice and Peace in memory of Minneapolis man George Floyd, AL.com reported. Floyd, 46, died in police custody shortly after his May 25 arrest during which an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Several speakers addressed rally-goers on Sunday, including Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Comedian Jermaine “FunnyMaine” Johnson.
“We’ve got a lot cities around the country. They’re tearing down Target. They’re tearing down city hall. We can’t do that,” Johnson told the crowd, according to the news site.
“But what I’m not telling you to do is walk to Linn Park,” the comedian continued. “I’m not telling to walk to Linn Park after this rally. I’m not telling you to tear something down in Linn Park. I’m not telling you that I’m going to be over there after this rally. While the whole world is on national TV tearing something down, we need to tear something down tonight. They need to see Birmingham, the home of the civil rights movement tear some s--t down tonight.”
By 10:30 that night, the Linn statue was torn down, local station WBRC reported.
Using rope, protesters pulled down the top part of the statue and used a pickup truck to yank it off its base, according to the news station. The group also used rocks to “chip away part of the concrete” and dismantled a large plywood barrier protecting the monument.
At one point, protesters scaled the statue to tie a rope around it as others in the crowd chanted, “Take this s--- down!” according to WBRC.
The statue, built in 2013 by a local group to “honor the work of one of Linn’s descendants,” has been a point of contention in Birmingham and a reminder of the city’s past ties to slavery, Newsweek reported. The park bearing Linn’s name features other Confederate monuments that were also damaged during Sunday’s protests.
Mayor Woodfin called for calm and asked protesters to “allow me to finish the job for you” by removing the statue.
“I understand the frustration ... that you have,” he told the crowd Sunday, and promised to have the statue out of the park by Tuesday if protesters agreed to leave peacefully, local station CBS-42 reported.
Other Confederate monuments were also targeted in the weekend protests sparked by Floyd’s death.
On Saturday, a statue at the University of Mississippi in Oxford was spray-painted with the words “spiritual genocide” alongside red hand prints, The Oxford Eagle reported. One person was arrested, university police told the outlet.
Protesters also defaced the Confederate Defenders statue in Charleston, South Carolina with phrases such as “BLM” and “traitors,” the Associated Press reported, citing local outlets.
In North Carolina, the base of a Confederate monument near the State Capitol was tagged with a black X and while protesters tore down a similar statue outside a courthouse in Durham, the outlet reported.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Protesters bring down Confederate statue during George Floyd unrest in Alabama."