Alabama Memorial Preservation Act

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The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act is a 2017 Alabama state law (Act of Alabama 2017-354) that prohibits the "relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument located on public property which has been in place for 40 or more years."

The law created the 11-member Alabama Monument Protection Committee, its members to be appointed by September 1, 2017, and charged it with reviewing applications for waivers for any such actions by local governments, institutions or other custodians of public property.

In 2015 the status of monuments honoring the Confederate States of America was challenged by numerous activists in the wake of a mass shooting at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina. In Alabama, calls were made to remove Confederate flags from the grounds of the state capitol and to remove the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument from Birmingham's Linn Park. The Birmingham Park & Recreation Board voted to study the possibility of removing the statue, prompting rallies from activists clamoring for quicker action, as well as protests from "heritage" groups like Save our South. That group filed a lawsuit against the city and the board seeking to require the monument's preservation, but the case was dismissed.

An earlier version of the law was first sponsored during the 2015 legislative session by Gerald Allen, who represents Alabama Senate District 21 in Lamar, Pickens and Tuscaloosa Counties. Originally titled the "Alabama Heritage Protection Act", his bill was intended to protect all statues, monuments, memorials, or plaques on public property. That bill contained an exception for such memorials that needed to be relocated for transportation projects. It died in committee. A revived version of Allen's bill passed the Senate and a House committee in 2016, but did not come to a vote in the House during that session.

A new version of the bill, co-sponsored by House District 30 Representative Mack Butler, passed both houses in 2017. The Senate version passed Allen's bill, with an amendment by Linda Coleman-Madison reducing the protection period from 50 years to 20 years, meaning that Civil Rights Movement monuments would have the same protection. When it reached the House, several opponents noted that the timing, following the removal of the flags from the capitol, made it clear that Confederate heritage was the motivation for the bill. After three hours of debate, the measure passed by a 72-29 vote.

It was signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey on June 24, 2017. The bill also restricts the renaming or relocating monuments or memorials that have been in place for more than 20 years by requiring petition to the Alabama Monument Protection Committee. The law establishes a fine of $25,000 for any action taken in violation of the law. Exceptions to the requirements of the law are granted to artifacts in museum collections, to actions taken for transportation, port or utility projects.

Birmingham's Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument

Birmingham mayor William Bell ordered public works crews to conceal the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument at Linn Park on August 15, 2017.

The first enforcement of the law was initiated when Attorney General of Alabama Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit claiming that Bell's action violated the "letter and spirit" of the law, leaving him no choice but to act. Representative Chris England (District 70, Tuscaloosa) claimed that the law as passed actually provided no penalty for violations of the section protecting monuments more than 40 years old and that it would therefore be unenforceable with regard to the Birmingham Confederate monument.

A hearing in that case was held on April 13, 2018 before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Mike Graffeo. Graffeo issued a ruling shortly before his January 2019 retirement from the bench voiding the 2017 law on the basis that it attempted to restrict the right of the citizens of Birmingham to speak collectively through their city government, and that it deprived the city of the right of due process. Activist Frank Matthews responded to the ruling by calling for the Birmingham Board of Parks and Recreation to remove the monument immediately.

Marshall appealed that ruling to the Alabama Supreme Court, which reversed Graffeo, instructing him to order the city to remove the barricade and pay a $25,000 fine. The court stated that the barricade negated the monument's intent, saying that, "Members of the public passing through Linn Park could have no way of knowing what the marble shaft rising from behind the plywood screen was intended to memorialize," and further ruled that municipalities do not enjoy the rights guaranteed by the constitution to individuals. The city filed a petition for a re-hearing, but it was denied.

References

External links

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