City crews in Birmingham, Ala., used sheets of plywood to cover a Confederate monument in Linn Park Tuesday.
Alabama law prohibits the removal of such structures and so Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered the 52-foot-tall obelisk covered Tuesday.
Crews worked into the night to erect the plywood structure. They used about eight sheets of plywood in all, Fox-affiliate WBRC reported.
The plywood rose above an inscription on the monument, commissioned by the Pelham Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and dedicated in 1905.
WBRC footage shows that the plywood sheets were painted over in black.
Bell called for the monument to be covered Tuesday after violence erupted over a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Va.
Birmingham City Council President Johnathan Austin is calling on the mayor to remove the monument altogether. He called it “offensive to our citizens,” Al.com reported.
“Thanks to Mayor Bell for coming around to understand the pain caused by the continued presence of these monuments, I appreciate his commitment to upholding the laws,” Austin said in a statement, before urging the mayor to take further action.
“However, more than 50 years ago in a cell just a few blocks from where we sit today, Dr. (Martin Luther) King (Jr.) instructed us on the importance of identifying and defying unjust laws…I call on Mayor Bell to reject the degradation of the citizens he was elected to serve. Mr. Mayor, tear down those statues.”
The mayor said he has no plans to break the law, according to AL.com.
“I am not in the business to break the law, I am charged to protect,” he said, adding that he would challenge legislation that prohibits monument removal.