Selma No Stranger to Confederate Monument Controversy

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

The violence in Charlottesville has sparked a national debate about race and history.

Its an issue people in Selma have been dealing with for years.

A monument honoring Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest has been at the center of most of the controversy in Selma.

Forrest defended the city in the Battle of Selma during the Civil War.

And he’s also said to have been the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

In addition to that, the city’s most iconic civil rights symbol, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, is named after a Confederate general.

“These are symbols of not only white supremacy but these are symbols of people who fought against the United States,” said Sanders.

“George Washington fought to bring the country together. Robert E. Lee fought to divide the country. He was literally attacking the country.”

Sanders says he thinks a new state law protecting against the removal of confederate monuments is unconstitutional.

And he’s expecting legal challenges to the law.