The Tuskegee Confederate Monument, also known as the Macon County Confederate Memorial and Tuskegee Confederate Memorial, is an outdoor

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

memorial in

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee ( ) is a city in Macon County, Alabama, Macon County, Alabama, United States. General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, laid out the city and founded it in 1833. It became the county seat in the same y ...

, in the United States. It was erected in 1906 by the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, a ...

to commemorate the Confederate soldiers from

Macon County, Alabama Macon County is a County (United States), county located in the east central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,532. Its county seat is Tuskegee, Alabama, Tuskegee. Its nam ...

. The monument is in Tuskegee Square in front of the Macon County Courthouse.

Controversy

The monument is located on land given in 1906 by the county government to the

, with the stipulation that it was for the use of whites only. , the town square is still owned by UDC, although the city of Tuskegee maintains it as a public space. When the monument was erected in 1906, the county population was 82%

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

. Per the 2010 United States Census, the city of Tuskegee is 97% African-American. In 1966, after an all-white jury acquitted the admitted killer of

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

worker Samuel Younge Jr., there was an unsuccessful attempt to tear the monument down; it was defaced with "

Black Power Black power is a list of political slogans, political slogan and a name which is given to various associated ideologies which aim to achieve self-determination for black people. It is primarily, but not exclusively, used in the United States b ...

" and a yellow stripe down its back. It was vandalized with spray paint in 2015 and on October 11, 2017; after the latest incident the United Daughters of the Confederacy, its owner, decided not to clean it, "out of fear it would only be repeated". In 2015, Mayor Johnny Ford sought to relocate the Confederate statue to the Tuskegee cemetery. According to Dyann Robinson, president of the Tuskegee Historic Preservation Commission, "it would probably take a bomb to get it down". In June 2020, the statue was again vandalized with graffiti. The city covered the base with

tarpaulin A tarpaulin ( , ) or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinf ...

s, and was looking into a way to legally have the statue removed and relocated.

Description

On the front, the monument reads: It has

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

s on both the right and left sides. The rear contains an unidentified shield, the words "Honor the Brave", and in the same size as on the front, "C.S.A." The monument is in Tuskegee Square, in front of the Macon County Courthouse, between North and South Main Streets, West Northside Street/East Rosa Parks Avenue, and Martin Luther King Highway. The square and monument are contributing resources to the Main Street Historic District.

References

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External links

Confederate statue in the town square of Tuskegee, Alabama
Library of Congress 1906 establishments in Alabama 1906 sculptures Buildings and structures in Macon County, Alabama Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Alabama Outdoor sculptures in Alabama Sculptures of men in Alabama Statues in Alabama Tuskegee, Alabama Vandalized works of art in Alabama

Controversy

Description

See also

References

External links