Confederate Monument Being Removed After Birmingham Mayor Vows To ‘Finish The Job’ – By Colin Dwyer (NPR) / June2 2020
Piece by piece, authorities overnight began pulling down a five-story-tall monument to Confederate troops that has stood for more than a century in Birmingham, Ala.
By the time the workers paused Tuesday morning, little was left of a spire that had become a lightning rod for controversy in recent years and a focal point for local protesters outraged by George Floyd’s death last week in Minneapolis.
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 crowd.
Some protesters had already vandalized the monument and toppled another statue in the park, that one of former Confederate officer Charles Linn.
Continue to article: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/02/867659459/confederate-monument-removed-after-birmingham-mayors-vow-to-finish-the-job
