‘Desecration’ of Bishop Calvin Woods Landmark Condemned by Metropolis Council, Civil Rights Leaders

Dr. Charles Steele, International President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during a press conference at Kelly Ingram Park. (Ryan Michaels, Birmingham Times)

Posted by Ryan Michaels

The Birmingham Times

In a resolution presented to Birmingham City Council on Tuesday, City Councilor Steven Hoyt said the city should “strengthen” its goals of protecting civil rights monuments, such as the recently destroyed plaque in honor of Bishop Calvin Woods.

Civil rights activists across the state of Alabama were in Birmingham on Tuesday to also denounce the vandalism.

A landmark in Kelly Ingram Park in honor of Woods, a legendary civil rights activist and founder of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) with his brother Abraham L. Woods and Fred L. Shuttlesworth, was destroyed sometime last month.

“The City of Birmingham City Council encourages the Administration and the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board to step up their efforts to ensure plans are in place to ensure adequate surveillance to adequately protect and protect civil rights artifacts in the City of Birmingham and its parks and recreational facilities Hoyt said, reading from the resolution, which was unanimously adopted.

Meanwhile, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) international president Charles Steele spoke during a rally in Kelly Ingram Park on Tuesday to publicize the vandalism.

Steele said he was appalled to learn of the desecration of the marker.

“This is an all-out assault on the very story that makes us great,” said Steele. “The person or persons who did this should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Hoyt pointed out that Birmingham has over 100 civil rights memorials and the person or persons who destroyed the Woods memorial should be brought to justice.

“The City of Birmingham should make every reasonable effort to protect both civil rights artifacts and civil and criminal justice to individuals who intentionally desecrate public markings, artistic expressions, monuments, plaques or statues,” states the Resolution It has decided that Birmingham City Council strongly condemn the willful desecration of civil rights signs, artistic expressions, plaques, monuments and other artifacts. “

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