Anniston council votes to move Confederate monument out of city

ANNISTON, Ala. (WBRC) - The Anniston city council has voted to remove a Confederate statue from one of the city’s main thoroughfares.

The obelisk is a monument to artillery officer John Pelham, who was born nearby in Alexandria.

It was erected in the early 1900s in what is now the median of Quintard Avenue.

It comes amid a national reckoning over racial issues and history.

The council voted 4-1 to remove the monument, with one of the council’s Black members, Ben Little, voting against it, citing the state’s monuments law.

“I can’t see where it is legal and binding for elected officials to willfully, knowingly and intentionally violate the law and ask the public citizen to pay the $25,000 fine,” said Little.

The council voted to move the monument to Janney Furnace Park, a park devoted to a Confederate Memorial and Museum, which Little says isn’t on the list of tourist attractions compiled by the state tourism board.

Little is currently facing a challenger, Ciara Smith, in an upcoming runoff election in October.

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