Ruling paves the way to remove Tuskegee Confederate statue
An Alabama judge has paved the way for officials to remove a Confederate monument placed a century ago at the center of a historic, majority-Black city as part of a “park for white people.” Since 1909, the Confederate monument has stood in the center of Tuskegee, a city famous for Tuskegee University and known as the training ground for Black pilots in World War II. The city’s population is now more than 93% Black. The monument has been a target of recent protests and vandalism attempts. The Macon County Commission filed a lawsuit to regain control of the land, which is the first step toward removing the statue. The monument was erected at a time when white supremacy reigned — and pro-Confederate groups across the South erected Civil War memorials to honor rebel troops and portray the cause of the slave-holding South as noble. Hundreds of rebel monuments were taken down in recent years as they came to be seen as symbols of racial oppression against Black people. Circuit Judge Steven Perryman on Thursday ruled that the site should revert to the Macon County Commission under the terms of a 1906 deed that gave the space to the Tuskegee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy for the purpose of “maintaining a park for white people and maintaining a monument to the memory of the Confederate soldiers.” Perryman said there was no evidence the space had been maintained as a segregated park, so the land should revert to the county under deed terms that said the county would get the land back if it wasn’t used for those purposes. The judge gave the Tuskegee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy 60 days to retrieve and remove the monument. The group could appeal the ruling. A 2017 Alabama law meant to protect Confederate monuments imposes a $25,000 penalty for removing or altering any monument that’s been in place for 40 or more years. However, a number of local governments have opted to take down Confederate structures and pay the law’s fine. Macon County Commission Chairman Louis Maxwell praised the decision. He said they needed to answer the question of who owns the property before taking any action about the monument. Maxwell said he hopes the statue will be gone by the spring festival that celebrates George Washington Carver, the famed 19th-century scientist, and Tuskegee professor. “We will celebrate the removal of this statue. We will celebrate this decision,” Maxwell said in a press conference. He asked county residents to be patient over the next 60 days. “Don’t tear it down,” Maxwell said. “Don’t deface it. Give them a chance to move it.” Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Confederate monument damaged but still stands in Tuskegee
A council member using a saw cut into a 115-year-old Confederate memorial at the center of historic Tuskegee on Wednesday but failed to topple it, marking the latest move in a push to remove the contentious monument from the nearly all-Black Alabama town. Johnny Ford, a former mayor whose City Council district includes the park where the monument is located, said he took action because constituents voted in a public meeting last week in favor of removing the rebel memorial, which has been the subject of complaints and a target for vandals on and off for years. Using a lift to reach the statue of a Confederate soldier atop a stone pedestal, Ford said he sawed into a leg of the memorial, which was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The group has refused to take down the statue even though Tuskegee, a town of 8,100, is 97% Black and known internationally as a home of Black empowerment. Ford said he stopped cutting when Sheriff Andre Brunson showed up and asked him to quit. But Ford said the fight isn’t over. “We can’t have a Confederate statue which represents slavery standing up in the middle of our town,” Ford said in an interview with The Associated Press. Brunson said it appeared Ford and another man had cut all the way through one ankle of the statue with an electric saw, but an engineer would have to conduct a full assessment. Neither man was arrested, Brunson said, but a report will be sent to the district attorney, and he added charges are possible. “I understand what many people think and what he thinks, but it’s still destruction of property,” Brunson said. Tuskegee is the home of Tuskegee University and the place where the first Black military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen, trained during World War II. Leaders previously draped the monument’s pedestal with tarps to cover pro-Confederate writing, and the statue itself was covered later by Ford. Demonstrators protesting the shooting death of a civil rights worker in 1966 attempted to pull down the statue but failed. It has been vandalized with spray paint several times in recent years. Louis Maxwell, the chairman of the Macon County Commission, said the county wants the statue removed and has been talking with an attorney for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns both the monument and the plot where it’s located under an arrangement dating back to 1906. Maxwell said he feared Ford’s action might be a setback to avoiding a lawsuit. “This had quieted down to give us a chance to work on it, but now it’s going to rear up again,” he said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Macon County covering up Confederate statue
Workers used a tarpaulin and ropes to cover up the square base of a 111-year-old statue.
