Another Confederate monument has been uprooted in the South, amid the USs heightened focus on racial and social injustice.
In the city of Anniston, Alabama, a 115-year-old monument of Confederate artillery officer John Pelham, who died in the Civil War, was quietly removed just after midnight on Monday. The memorial, which was erected in 1905, referred to Pelham as "gallant" in an inscription on its base. The statue will be relocated to the Confederate history park Janney Furnace in Ohatchee, Alabama.
City spokesman Jackson Hodges told the Associated Press the monument was taken down late at night to avoid traffic problems. He clarified, "It wasn't to pull a fast one on the community."
Last month, city leaders voted 4-1 for the Pelham monument's removal, concluding that it was "inextricably intertwined with the South's historical support for slavery and racial segregation." The council's decision reportedly drew little public opposition in Anniston, a city of about 52 per cent Black residents.