Confederate monument that had stood in the center of Athens, Georgia since 1872 is latest memorial to be dismantled with almost 90 having been removed across the country since May
Work crews in Georgia have begun dismantling a Confederate monument that has stood in the median of a busy street in downtown Athens for nearly 150 years.
City crews using bucket lifts started taking down sections of the towering marble obelisk late Monday and worked through Tuesday morning amid a small group of onlookers.
City officials said in a statement that work was expected to take several nights.
Workers remove the downtown Confederate monument in Athens, Georgia on Monday night
City crews using bucket lifts started taking down sections of the towering marble obelisk late Monday and worked through Tuesday morning
The death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked a renewed wave of Confederate monument removals across the U.S., just like a violent 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville before it and a mass shooting at a historic African American church in South Carolina before that.
As a national outcry over racial injustice prompted renewed efforts across the U.S. to take down Confederate statues and monuments, Athens-Clarke County commissioners voted in June to remove the monument from its prominent location on Broad Street, where downtown meets the University of Georgia campus.
The Athens monument was completed in 1872 and was built in memory of 217 local Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.
Workers continue removing the downtown Confederate monument in Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County commissioners voted in June to remove the monument from its prominent location on Broad Street
Georgia law prohibits moving Confederate monuments. Athens-Clarke County officials have said the move is necessary in order to widen a busy pedestrian crosswalk.
They plan to place the monument into storage and relocate it later to the site of the county's only fighting in the Civil War.
A group that promotes Confederate heritage has filed suit in Superior Court to stop the move. But a judge declined to grant an injunction that would have prohibited city crews from dismantling the monument while the case is pending.
The work to remove the confederate monument is expected to take several nights
The statue is to be placed into storage before ultimately being moved to Athens' only skirmish during the Civil War at Barber Creek
The Ladies Memorial Association erected the memorial in 1871 and 1872 in memory of Confederate soldiers from Athens who died in the Civil War. It was placed in the center of the College Avenue and Washington Street intersection but was moved to East Broad Street in 1912.
At least 77 Confederate statues, monuments or markers have been removed from public land across the country since Floyd´s death at the hands of police in Minnesota on May 25, making 2020 one of the busiest years yet for removals.
Most were removed by government officials, though protesters have toppled some.
But markers that many view as racist have not come down as swiftly in rural parts of the country.
The monument was one of the first to be built in the South after the end of the war at a cost of $4,000 (about $900k in 2020) which was raised by the city's Ladies' Memorial Association
It was first suggested the city remove the monument after 2015's Charleston church shooting
After the killing of George Floyd by police the area once again became a rallying point for demonstrations in the city with protesters once against calling for the monument to be moved
Confederate monument that had stood in the center of Athens, Georgia since 1872 is latest memorial to be dismantled with almost 90 having been removed across the country since May
![Confederate monument that had stood in the center of Athens, Georgia since 1872 is latest memorial to be dismantled with almost 90 having been removed across the country since May]()
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August 12, 2020
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