Linn Park Confederate Monument Removed By City

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The City of Birmingham began removal of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Linn Park Monday night, as only the concrete base of the monument still stands in the park.

The removal comes after demonstrations at the monument took place Sunday night in protest of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mayor Randall Woodfin stepped in during the demonstration and told protesters to leave the areaand that he would "finish the job" of taking down the monument.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Monday that the city could remove the monumentlegally, but would likely be fined by the state $25,000. Woodfin said Monday that a fine is worth paying if it helps bring peace to the city.

The monument itself has been a source of lawsuits and protests the last couple of years.

A storm of controversy surrounded the City of Birmingham's decision in the fall of 2017 to place a black wooden barrier around the monument. Defenders of the monument claimed the city violated the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled ruled in November that the barrier was against the law, and ordered the city to pay a $25,000 fine, the same fine the city would pay for removing the monument entirely.

The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act prohibits "the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument located on public property which has been in place for 40 or more years." The monument in Linn Park is 115 years old.

Woodfin has not given a timeline as to when and how the large concrete base of the monument will be removed.