Montgomery Advertiser
Before Johnny Ford drove into downtown Tuskegee and climbed into an electronic lift bucket with a saw on Wednesday, he prayed.
When the saw touched the concrete ankle of the Confederate soldier statue perched over the town square, he remembered.
Ford remembered his childhood friend, Sammy Younge, a Black Navy veteran and civil rights worker gunned down in 1966 after asking to use a whites-only bathroom. Ford remembered Tuskegee University students streaming into town streets when Younge s accused killer was acquitted, attaching chains and ropes to the towering monument to the Confederacy in a failed effort to pull it from its pedestal.
Residents in Tuskegee React to City Councilman Johnny Ford s Actions Against the Confederate Monument alabamanews.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from alabamanews.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Before Johnny Ford drove into downtown Tuskegee and climbed into an electronic lift bucket with a saw on Wednesday, he prayed.
When the saw touched the concrete ankle of the towering Confederate soldier statue perched over the town square, he remembered.
Ford remembered his childhood friend, Sammy Younge, a Black Navy veteran and civil rights worker gunned down in 1966 after asking to use a whites-only bathroom. Ford remembered Tuskegee University students streaming into town streets when Younge s accused killer was acquitted, attaching chains and ropes to the towering monument to the Confederacy in a failed effort to pull it from its pedestal.
Confederate monument damaged but still stands in Tuskegee
by The Associated Press
Last Updated Jul 7, 2021 at 6:11 pm EDT
TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) A council member using a saw cut into a 115-year-old Confederate memorial at the center of historic Tuskegee on Wednesday but failed to topple it, marking the latest move in a push to remove the contentious monument from the nearly all-Black Alabama town.
Johnny Ford, a former mayor whose City Council district includes the park where the monument is located, said he took action because constituents voted in a public meeting last week in favor of removing the rebel memorial, which has been the subject of complaints and a target for vandals on and off for years.
Confederate monument damaged but still stands in Tuskegee
A council member using a saw cut into a 115-year-old Confederate memorial at the center of historic Tuskegee on Wednesday but failed to topple it, marking the latest move in a push to remove the contentious monument from the nearly all-Black Alabama town. Johnny Ford, a former mayor whose City Council district includes the park where the monument is located, said he took action because constituents voted in a public meeting last week in favor o…
16 hours ago|Los Angeles, United States