The City of Mobile removed its Confederate statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes without warning early Friday morning, coming after less than a week of protest around the death of George Floyd.
George Talbot, the city’s director of communications, has since confirmed the city was responsible for the statue being moved. It’s not yet clear what the city plans to do with it.
In a statement to AL.com, Mayor Sandy Stimpson said the statue was a “distraction," but did not indicate if the statue would return to the same location in the future or be moved erected elsewhere.
“On June 4, 2020, I ordered that the statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes be moved from its location at the intersection of Government and Royal streets in downtown Mobile,” said Stimpson. “The task was completed this morning, June 5. The statue has been placed in a secure location.
“To be clear: This decision is not about Raphael Semmes, it is not about a monument and it is not an attempt to rewrite history. Moving this statue will not change the past. It is about removing a potential distraction so we may focus clearly on the future of our city. That conversation, and the mission to create One Mobile, continues today.”
The removal of the 120-year-old bronze statue follows days of peaceful protest in the port city and more recent calls that the memorial should be removed because of its perceived racist symbolism.
A protest had been planned for Sunday specifically calling for the statue, which was erected in 1900, to be removed.
The sandstone base of the statue was vandalized late Monday night, coming at the same time as Birmingham paid contractors to remove its enormous 33-ton obelisk-shaped monument to the Confederacy from Linn Park. The following day, Mobile had the red graffiti removed and then restored some of the informational plates to their original state.
At the time, a spokesperson for the city said the statue was cleaned because it was public property and any removal would need to be collaborative effort.
“The statue was vandalized last night and a suspect has been identified,” said the spokesperson. “The graffiti is being cleaned, as we would do with any public property. Any decision on moving it would be collaborative in nature. There is a process for that, and we are listening to the community’s voice as part of that process.”
This breaking story will updated as more information becomes available.