| Statue of Charles Linn | |
|---|---|
 The statue in 2014 | |
 | |
| Artist | Branko Medenica |
| Year | 2013 |
| Medium |
|
| Subject | Charles Linn |
| Location | Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| 33°31′12″N86°48′35″W / 33.52000°N 86.80972°W Coordinates: 33°31′12″N86°48′35″W / 33.52000°N 86.80972°W | |
A statue of Charles Linn was previously installed in Birmingham, Alabama's Linn Park, in the United States. The statue was erected in 2012 and toppled in 2020.
The 8-foot (2.4 m) bronze sculpture depicts Charles Linn, and rests on a 5-foot (1.5 m) granite-clad base. [1] The statue is based on a painting displayed in the Linn-Henley Research Library (but shows Linn bearded, whereas the painting does not) and weighs approximately 800 pounds. [2] Linn's hand rests on a pillar, representing the establishment of the National Bank of Birmingham. [3] The memorial also has plaques about Linn and identifying major donors. [2]
The statue was commissioned from sculptor Branko Medenica by the Alabama-Mississippi Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of their "Legacy of Leadership" campaign chairman, Arthur Henley, a descendant of Linn. The statue was announced in 2012, [4] and dedicated on "World MS Day" on May 29, 2013. [2] Medenica attended the dedication. [1]
Linn was honored for his contribution to the early development of Birmingham, a city founded several years after the U.S. Civil War. His National Bank of Birmingham, which survives as the Regions Financial Corporation, was a signal institution in the young city. During the war, Linn sent his wife and younger children to Dresden and moved with his oldest son, Charles Washington Linn, to Mobile, where they set themselves up as blockade runners under contract to the Confederate Quartermaster Bureau. The venture failed and the Linns were captured as prisoners of war. After their parole, Linn took a position with a New Orleans wholesaler before founding his bank in the newly-created city of Birmingham. [5] [6]
On May 31, 2020, during the George Floyd protests, Linn Park filled with protesters eager to destroy the nearby Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Because of his association with the Confederacy, Linn's statue was also defaced and eventually toppled. [7]
Medenica, who had incorporated a tribute of his own to his sister-in-law who died of MS, said he understood why the statue was toppled but lamented the loss of his personal commemoration: "They didn't know. I think it was like mass hysteria gone out of control. You know so it sad. It's sad." The artist has said he would be willing to restore the sculpture. [8]
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The Confederate War Memorial was a 65 foot (20 m)-high monument that pays tribute to soldiers and sailors from Texas who served with the Confederate States of America (CSA) during the American Civil War. The monument was dedicated in 1897, following the laying of its cornerstone the previous year. Originally located in Sullivan Park near downtown Dallas, Texas, United States, the monument was relocated in 1961 to the nearby Pioneer Park Cemetery in the Convention Center District, next to the Dallas Convention Center and Pioneer Plaza.
Charles Linn born Carl Erik Engelbert Sjödahl was a sailor, wholesaler, banker, and industrialist. He was a captain in the Confederate Navy and an important figure in Alabama's early economy.
The Confederate Monument in Portsmouth, Virginia, was built between 1876 and 1881. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1997.
Appomattox is a bronze statue commemorating soldiers from Alexandria, Virginia, who had died while fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The memorial was located in the center of the intersection of South Washington Street and Prince Street in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria.
The Albert Pike Memorial is a public artwork in Washington, D.C. honoring Albert Pike (1809–1891), a senior officer of the Confederate States Army as well as a poet, lawyer, and influential figure in the Scottish Rite of freemasonry. The memorial, which now only includes the base and Goddess of Masonry sculpture, is sited near the corner of 3rd and D Streets NW in the Judiciary Square neighborhood. The memorial's two bronze figures were sculpted by Gaetano Trentanove, an Italian-American artist responsible for another Washington, D.C. sculptural landmark, the Daniel Webster Memorial. The dedication ceremony in 1901 was attended by thousands of Masons who marched in a celebratory parade.
Since the 1960s, many municipalities in the United States have removed monuments and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate States of America, and some, such as Silent Sam in North Carolina, have been torn down by protestors. Efforts to remove Confederate memorials increased in the late 2010s after high-profile incidents including the Charleston church shooting (2015), the Unite the Right rally (2017), and the murder of George Floyd (2020). The removals have been driven by historical analysis that the monuments express and re-enforce white supremacy; memorialize an unrecognized, treasonous government, the Confederacy, whose founding principle was the perpetuation and expansion of slavery; and that the presence of these Confederate memorials over a hundred years after the defeat of the Confederacy continues to disenfranchise and alienate African Americans.
The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument was a commemorative obelisk that was erected in Linn Park, Birmingham, Alabama in 1905. The monument was dismantled and removed in 2020.
Richmond, Virginia, experienced a series of protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Richmond was the first city in the Southeastern United States to see rioting following Floyd's murder. Richmond, formerly the capital of the short-lived Confederate States of America, saw much arson and vandalism to monuments connected with that polity, particularly along Monument Avenue.
Linn Park is a seven-acre (2.8 ha) urban park in the centre of Birmingham, Alabama. It is overlooked by Birmingham City Hall. Formerly known as Capitol Park, Woodrow Wilson Park, and Central Park, the park was renamed after Confederate naval officer and businessman Charles Linn in the 1980s.
This is a list of George Floyd protests in Alabama, United States. Protests occurred in fourteen various communities in the state.
The Stonewall Jackson Monument in Richmond, Virginia, was erected in honor of Thomas Jonathon "Stonewall" Jackson, a Confederate general. The monument was located at the centre of the crossing of Monument Avenue and North Arthur Ashe Boulevard, in Richmond, Virginia. The bronze equestrian statue was unveiled in 1919. Along this avenue are other statues including Robert E. Lee, J. E. B. Stewart, Jefferson Davis, Matthew Maury and more recently Arthur Ashe. Thomas Jackson is best known as one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted commanders throughout the early period of the American Civil War between Southern Confederate states and Northern Union states. He rose to prominence after his vital role in the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, continuing to command troops until his untimely death on May 10, 1863, after falling fatally ill following the amputation of his wounded arm.
The Matthew Fontaine Maury Monument, is a partially deconstructed memorial installed along Richmond, Virginia's Monument Avenue depicting Matthew Fontaine Maury and commemorating his Confederate naval service and contributions to oceanography and naval meteorology. It features the engraved moniker "Pathfinder of the Seas". Between July 2–9, 2020, the bronze statue of Maury and other sculptural elements were removed from the monument by the city of Richmond, in response to local protests connected to nationwide unrest sparked by the murder of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
The statue of the Confederate States of America cavalry general Williams Carter Wickham by Edward Virginius Valentine was installed in Richmond, Virginia's Monroe Park in 1891, near Virginia Commonwealth University's main campus. It was toppled in June 2020 during the George Floyd protests.
The Confederate Memorial, was installed in Jacksonville, Florida's Hemming Park, in the United States. The monument was removed in June 2020.
A bronze statue of Christopher Columbus was installed on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1931. The 10-foot statue was created by Italian American Carlo Brioschi.
The Howitzer Monument was installed in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. It commemorated the Richmond Howitzers, a Confederate artillery unit. The statue was created by Caspar Buberl. It was located on Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park campus.
A memorial statue of Francis Scott Key stood in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California, from 1888 until 2020.
