Four Years Later: We're Still Confederate.

       Four years ago next week, Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed the Confederate Memorial Protection Act (legally called The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017), preventing municipalities and counties from removing or changing all things confederate.

     A bill introduced in February would have increased those fines drastically, but it never got out of committee before the 2021 session ended on Monday. 

     Despite the original law and the threat of increased fines, efforts are underway by some entities to make changes that would be apparent violations.

• The Montgomery School Board is soliciting public recommendations for new names for three High Schools named for confederate figures, including Robert E. Lee High School, where a statue of Lee was taken down after it was vandalized.
• The city of Montgomery is planning to change he name of Jefferson Davis Avenue, which stretches 1.68 miles across the city, mostly through heavily African-American neighborhoods.
  
• Several Universities and Colleges, including ASU and Troy, have changed the names of buildings named for Confederate figures, without any apparent action against them. 
  

 

      As of early this week, a spokesman for Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said there had been no actions taken in regard to the law.

    The bill was signed by Governor Ivey, but sponsored in The House by Rep. Mack Butler (R-Gadsden), who has since run for the State Senate, but lost and is no longer in office.