An Interview From Birmingham City Hall: Mayor Randall Woodfin on Toppling Racist Monuments

Now, outside the imposing walls of Birmingham City Hall, the legacy of all that hate was again threatening the city’s equilibrium, only this time, it was Woodfin’s responsibility to figure out what, if anything, to do about it. At one end of Linn Park, a grassy area named for a Confederate officer and flanking City Hall, an obelisk known as the— built in 1905 despite the fact that Birmingham hadn’t even existed during the Civil War — had become a focal point for the protesters.

: So let’s talk about what’s happened in the past few weeks. When did you first hear the name George Floyd?I remember how it felt. In the moment, I’m going back to every time I’ve been pulled over by an officer — and I’ve been pulled over more than 20 times since I was a teenager. Driving while black is a real thing. Being profiled is a real thing.

I grew up [in Alabama], and I was taught — not just by my teacher, but it was in our textbooks — that the Civil War was not about slavery, it was about States’ Rights. I don’t know if they still have the audacity to teach that.

No, I only understood the statue. Breaking glass, trying to burn buildings just because? I don’t agree with that. And here’s why: Based on being a middle child, based on being a lawyer, based on being a community person, I know that extremes don’t work when you want to get things solved. You just want to make noise and destroy stuff? Cool. But if you want to solve things, you got to talk to people. Hell, I want change, too. I want reform, too. You don’t have to fight me. I want to join you.

The quality of life of all 99 neighborhoods would be totally different. The property value in the 99 neighborhoods would be totally different: It would be higher. The illiteracy rate would be lower. The unemployment number would be lower. The number of children that finish high school or college would be higher. Crime would be lower. I can go on and on. Here’s the point. From a historical standpoint, we are extremely delayed on 40 acres and a mule.

The number one challenge is you don’t have home rule, so I am dependent on Montgomery in the form of certain laws I need to happen, or worse, certain laws they create that are harmful to us because we don’t agree with them or they go against some basic decency of human and civil rights that we believe in.

Love our mayor ❤️

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