From Hyperalleric: “Randall Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, ordered the removal of the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Linn Park on Monday, and had the 115-year-old statue carted away by crane despite not having the authority to do so—the move was in violation of the Alabama Monuments Preservation Act, a law passed in 2017 which prohibits the relocation, removal, or alteration of monuments. Woodfin was not deterred by the potential repercussions of his decision, telling AL.com that he would rather pay a state fine than have more civil unrest. Woodfin told NBC that he has since received death threats.
Early Wednesday, Philadelphia followed suit and rid Thomas Paine Plaza of a statue of former mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo, notorious for his aggressive policing of Black and gay communities. The work has been relocated to a storage area for the Department of Public Property. In a statement, Mayor Jim Kenney called the statue a “deplorable monument to racism, bigotry, and police brutality” and said that the city was planning to move the monument during a 2021 renovation of the plaza, but realized that it needed to go sooner. “We now need to work for true equity for all Philadelphia residents, and toward healing our communities. The removal of this statue . . . is but a small step in that process.”
Statues are not usually considered art, since the purpose is to memorialize a person or event, so these removals are not considered to be a censoring of art.
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