UNESCO/YouTube video Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell.
Birmingham, Alabama Mayor William A. Bell ordered the Confederate monument in Linn Park to be covered by a barrier and is now facing a lawsuit from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. Bell decided to have the monument covered while officials consider removing it for good.
While Birmingham officials want the monument removed, Marshall and his office argued that the city has violated the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which was passed in May. “The City of Birmingham does not have the right to violate the law and leaves my office with no choice but to file suit,” Marshall said in a statement to WIAT.
Here’s what you need to know about Bell and the controversy over the Confederate monument in Birmingham.
1. Bell Ordered a Plywood Barrier Put Around the Monument After a City Councilman Asked Him to Remove It
On Tuesday morning, Birmingham City Council President Johnathan Austin challenged Bell to remove the monument, calling it “offensive to our citizens.” Rather than have it removed right away, Bell opted for a makeshift barrier. As AL.com reports, the city first put black plastic around it, before returning Tuesday night to put a plywood barrier around it.
Austin brought up the monument at the weekly meeting after the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia white nationalist rally, where a woman was killed when a suspect linked to white nationalists drove into a crowd of counter-protesters. The alt-right picked Charlottesville for the rally because the city is planning to remove a Robert E. Lee statue.
Since the rally, there has been an outcry against Confederate monuments, with one group of people in North Carolina even taking matters into their own hands by removing a statue themselves. In Baltimore, the mayor had statues removed overnight.
“Thanks to Mayor Bell for coming around to understand the pain caused by the continued presence of these monuments. I appreciate his commitment to upholding the laws,” Austin said in a statement after the barriers went up. “However, more than 50 years ago in a cell just a few blocks from where we sit today, Dr. (Martin Luther) King (Jr.) instructed us on the importance of identifying and defying unjust laws. In a letter from the Birmingham jail, he advised us, ‘Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.’ There is nothing more degrading than slavery, or the rejection of the fundamental principle that all men are created equal. The so-called ‘lost cause’ of the Confederacy degraded African Americans and any celebration of that gives life to that cause. I call on Mayor Bell to reject the degradation of the citizens he was elected to serve. Mr. Mayor, tear down those statues.”
2. Bell Doesn’t Want to Remove the Monument Until He Has Approval From the State Government
Bell didn’t have the 112-year-old monument removed right away because of a law Governor Kay Ivey signed in May 2017. AL.com reported at the time that the law protects monuments on public property that have been standing for 40 years or more. The law, called the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, was criticized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a direct reaction to calls to remove Confederate monuments. If Birmingham violates the law, the city faces a $25,000 fine.
In 2015, the Birmingham City Council approved a plan to remove the Linn Park monument, but that was put on hold by a lawsuit.
“I am not in the business to break the law, I am charged to protect,” Bell said during the city council meeting.
But Marshall said that Bell was already violating the law just by putting up the plywood barriers.
“In accordance with the law, my office has determined that by affixing tarps and placing plywood around the Linn Park Memorial such that it is hidden from view, the Defendants have ‘altered’ or ‘otherwise disturbed’ the memorial in violation of the letter and spirit of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act,” Marshall said in a statement. “The City of Birmingham does not have the right to violate the law and leaves my office with no choice but to file suit.”
“We look forward to the court system clarifying the rights and power of a municipality to control its parks absent state intervention,” Bell said in a response.
3. Bell Has Been Birmingham’s Mayor Since 2010 & Is a Democrat
Bell has been the mayor of Alabama’s largest city since 2010. He previously served on the City Council and became the city’s first African-American City Council President in 1985.HE was also an interim Mayor in 1999.
Bell is a Democrat and was elected to a full term as mayor in 2010 and re-elected in 2013. He is running for re-election this year.
The 68-year-old Bell has a Master’s Degree in Psychology and Guidance and Counseling from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Miles College. He is married to Dr. Sharon C. Bell and has two children and two grandsons. His son William Anthony Bell Jr. is a judge.
4. Bell Was Hospitalized in 2015 After a Brawl With a City Councilor
Back in December 2015, Bell got into an altercation with Birmingham City Councilor Marcus Lundy. AL.com reported at the time that Lundy and Bell had a discussion about a consultant in the back room. When the conversation got heated, Bell tried to leave. A source told AL.com that Lundy then pulled Bell back into the room, leaving marks on Bell.
Bell and Lundy were both taken to the hospital. The Mayor’s Office later released the police report. Bell’s office also denied a rumor that he told Lundy’s employer that Lundy should be fired.
Lundy announced in May 2017 that he will not seek re-election.
5. Bell Joined the Climate Mayors to Protest Trump Pulling the U.S. From the Paris Climate Accords
Bell has been critical of President Donald Trump on a number of issues. For example, in June, he announced plans to join the Climate Mayors, a group of over 350 mayors across the country who vowed to work to lower greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change. The group was established after Trump pulled the U.S. from the UN’s Paris Climate Accords.
“Our city has joined Climate Mayors to mutually strengthen grassroots-level, city-led activity on undertaking climate action by cleaning our energy sources, making of infrastructure efficient and growing our economy through investing in the sectors that enable a climate-compatible future,” Bell said in a statement. “We will release a list of tangible steps the city is taking (this) week to make this adoption a reality.”
Last year, Bell also denounced Trump’s Republican presidential nomination acceptance speech, insisting that the crime-riddled view of major cities Trump described doesn’t fit his city. “This doom-and-gloom picture, that people are wilding in the streets, that’s just not happening,” Bell said.
Bell also criticized Trump’s immigration executive order in January, calling it “ill-conceived and ill-thought-of.”
