Lawmakers Debate Monument Preservation Act

Senator Gerald Allen is once again bringing his Monument Preservation Act to the state house.

The bill would prevent monuments over than 50 years old on public land from being removed.

But the bill also covers building and street names, like Jefferson Davis High School, or Robert E. Lee High School.

Some people I talked with say it is important to preserve our history, both the good and the bad.

“I think you need to save your history, whether it’s confederate or civil rights or whatever because you have suceeding generations that need to know our history,” said one Montgomery resident.

“I think it would help our children that are still coming in to understand that there was a lot of things here. Montgomery has a lot of things here that a lot of people don’t know and they’ve lived here all their life,” said Connie Brighton.

Derryn Moton is the chair of Alabama State University’s Department of History and Political Science. He says he has mixed feelings about these confederate monuments.

“At the time that many of these buildings were named, these parks were dedicated, these monuments were erected, not everyone had a chance to weigh in. Not everyone had a chance to express their opinions on these things,” said Moton.

Moton says there have been efforts in other states like Louisiana to rename buildings to move away from some of the confederate history.

But there haven’t been many pushes in the Alabama.

“I’ve seen and heard discussion from time to time of renaming the Edmund Pettis bridge, but as I said, no real concerted effort.”