Birmingham Requires Face Coverings Through July 3
Birmingham has extended its face covering ordinance through July 3. The ordinance requires all Birmingham residents to wear face coverings in public places to slow the spread of COVID-19. Read more.
Virginia Martin
16 More Prison Workers Test Positive for COVID-19, Taking Total to Almost 100
Nearly 100 employees of the Alabama Department of Corrections have tested positive for the coronavirus, including 16 whose positive tests were announced today. In a news release, the department said each of the 16 employees has self-quarantined. Read more.
Alabama COVID-19 Case Count Up Another 424; 26 More Die
Alabama has 424 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one more probable case reported. Between 10 a.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Monday, 26 more people died from the disease. Probable deaths remained at four. In all, 714 people have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March. The state has had a total of 20,590 confirmed cases of the disease and 424 probable cases. Read more.
Mayor Lifts Birmingham’s Curfew and Protest Ban at Midnight
Birmingham’s public safety curfew and state of emergency will expire tonight, a week after they were enacted by Mayor Randall Woodfin in response to violent protests in the city’s downtown area. “I want to thank the people of Birmingham for uniting and working together during this challenging time,” Woodfin said in a statement Monday. Both the curfew and the state of emergency will end at 11:59 p.m. The curfew prevented residents (excepting essential workers) from leaving their homes between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. The state of emergency had established a 24-hour ban on public demonstrations and gatherings of all kinds in the city. Read more.
457 New COVID-19 Cases Reported in Alabama
Alabama chalked up 457 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 between Saturday morning and Sunday morning, and three more people died of the disease in that period. The state has 20,166 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 334 probable cases. Deaths in the state have risen to 688 confirmed, with another four deaths characterized as probable. As of Sunday morning, 471 patients were hospitalized with the disease. Read more.
From Chaos Comes Art: A Walk Through Downtown Birmingham
Downtown Birmingham, including parts that were hit by an outbreak of violence on the night of May 31, was a lively place Sunday afternoon, with murals touting civic harmony and strength being mounted and painted and a steady stream of visitors from the city and suburbs joining in. Read more.
Social Distancing Versus Social Statement: Doctors Worry Protests Could Spread Coronavirus but Say Racism is Deadly, Too
Social distancing has taken a backseat to social statements the past week as persons have assembled in large numbers to protest the death of George Floyd and to call for change. But state health officials worry that the combination of crowds and the coronavirus could greatly amplify COVID-19 cases in Alabama and the U.S. They urge people to remain mindful of social distancing, hygiene and face covering recommendations as they assemble. Dr. Karen Landers, assistant state health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said she and others in her department are deeply concerned and saddened about the death of George Floyd. And they say persons have the right to peaceful assembly to express their individual and collective opinions. “But we do remain concerned when there's a congregate group of any size for any reason, and social distancing measures are not taking place,” Landers said. “It concerns me as a physician to see people that are in large groups that aren't taking any measures." Read more.
Alabama Averaged Almost 392 New COVID-19 Cases a Day This Past Week
Confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in Alabama have risen by 2,742 in the past week, an average of 391.7 cases per day. Deaths also have risen by 79, an average of 11.3 deaths a day. That shows a decrease in average daily cases and a slight increase in average daily deaths from the week before, when the state averaged 519 total cases and 9.9 deaths a day. Case counts and deaths reported on the Alabama Department of Public Health’s website had been undercounted this past week because the national surveillance system had been overwhelmed, department officials said. The result was that the site appeared to indicate Alabama was making more progress in the fight against the coronavirus than it actually was. But the department reported Saturday morning that the backlog had been cleared. Read more.
Monuments to a Divisive Past: Even as Some Confederate Memorials Fall, Alabama Has So Many More
When Birmingham’s mayor decided to remove a visible symbol of the Confederacy from a park in a state packed with monuments, memorials, plaques and place names honoring the lost cause, it made huge news and sparked a number of reactions.
“It was absolutely appropriate,” said retired Auburn University professor Wayne Flynt. Besides being a recognized authority in Southern history, Flynt counts among his ancestors members of the Confederate military.
His view: it was time for the monument to go. “I applaud the mayor for doing it. I applaud the City Council for supporting it,” Flynt said.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin defied state law June 1 when he had the controversial 1905 Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument removed from the city’s Linn Park. He promised demonstrators he would have the memorial removed to quell violence after a protest over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police turned toward destruction of statuary and downtown storefronts.
But there are still a lot of Confederate memorials of various sorts standing around the state of Alabama. More than 40 of the state’s 67 counties have at least one, and some counties have more. Read more.
Why So Many Monuments?
Why So Many Monuments?
Memorials to the Confederacy are hardly isolated to the South. In fact, the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Whose Heritage” report in 2019 includes a detailed map of such sites. The SPLC documents memorials to the Southern rebellion as distant as Maine, California and Washington — not to mention Washington, D.C. Most, not surprisingly, are clustered throughout the South. Read more.