; The base of a massive Confederate monument in Alabama’s largest city was all that remained Tuesday after crews dismantled the towering obelisk and trucked it away in pieces. Other symbols c…
The base of a massive Confederate monument in Alabama’s largest city was all that remained Tuesday after crews dismantled the towering obelisk and trucked it away in pieces. Other symbols came down elsewhere, leaving an empty pedestal and a bare flagpole.
Workers hired by the city of Birmingham began removing the top portion of the 115-year-old monument from Linn Park late Monday. By daybreak, the pedestal was the only thing left, covered with graffiti and pock marks from protests against police brutality.
Sarah Collins Rudolph, whose sister Addie Mae Collins died in a racist church bombing that killed three other black girls in the city in 1963, came to see the remains. She lowered a protective face mask to take in the sight.
“I’m glad it’s been removed because it has been so long. It’s a hate monument,” said Rudolph. She was seriously injured in the blast at 16th Street Baptist Church, and testified against Ku Klux Klansmen who were convicted in the killings.
