Ex-Tuskegee mayor tries to topple Confederate monument with saw
TUSKEGEE, Ala. – The former mayor of Tuskegee attempted to remove a Confederate monument with his own hands, using an electric saw to try and topple the statue.
Johnny Ford, currently a Tuskegee councilman, went into the city’s downtown area on Wednesday and began sawing the leg of the statue before Macon County’s sheriff halted the operation, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
Ford had pledged to remove the “painful” Confederate monument and was helped by an unidentified person.
“We were well on our way toward accomplishing that goal,” Ford, who is a former mayor, told AL.com about the effort to remove the monument honoring Macon County’s Confederate soldiers.
Ford said he was motivated by memories of his childhood friend, Sammy Younge, who was fatally shot after asking to use a whites-only bathroom in 1966, the Advertiser reported. Ford also remembered when Younge’s accused killer was acquitted and Tuskegee University students tried to topple the monument by attaching chains and ropes, the newspaper reported.
“I pledged then to remove the statue,” Ford told the newspaper.
Wednesday, Ford reaffirmed that pledge.
“I was doing it for Sammy Younge. And the students who tried to pull the statue down,” Ford told the Advertiser. “The message has been sent. Everybody has just been waiting on someone to do it. It’s my council district. It’s my responsibility to do it. The people elected me, in this district. This is the first time the county and city government have taken a position to see it removed. Of course, they haven’t been able to do it because of the legal (implications). They’re afraid of the threats from the Legislature and the attorney general. But I’m not afraid of the governor and the attorney general.”
The Macon County Sheriff’s Office strung police tape around the monument after Ford’s attempt, WSFA reported.
Macon County Sheriff André Brunson said charges will be filed against Ford and the other person, the television station reported.
“Johnny Ford was up on a lift, him and another guy,” Brunson told WSFA. “And they were cutting the leg of the statue, trying to take the statue down.”
Ford said the prospect of charges did not faze him.
“We don’t care what the state wishes to do. This is Tuskegee, Alabama,” Ford told WSFA. “If the state wants to fine us, fine. If they want to try to arrest us, fine.”
The monument, located in the 100 block of Tuskegee’s Main Street, has been a controversial fixture in the predominantly Black city. It has been vandalized several times, including in 2015, 2017 and 2020, the Advertiser reported.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated Tuskegee’s monument in 1909, the newspaper reported. The monument was erected in a downtown park set aside exclusively for white people despite the population of Macon County being more than 80% Black at the time, according to The Associated Press.
Ford said he had hoped to remove the statue and bury it on public land, placing a headstone to mark its location, the newspaper reported. He still hopes to do that someday and acknowledged that he came close on Wednesday.
“Literally the statue in Macon County is on its last leg,” Ford told the Advertiser.
