Selma woman arrested during protest as city votes to deed land to United Daughters of the Confederacy
Erin Edgemon
January 16, 2014
SELMA, Alabama — A Selma woman was arrested after protesting Selma City Council’s decision to give an acre of land to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Sherrette Spicer, of Selma, was arrested as part of a group that became disruptive at Tuesday night’s meeting, WAKA reported. She was charged with obstruction of governmental operation, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
The council’s vote was part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed against the city over a construction project at a Confederate memorial site, which includes a monument dedicated to the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Selma activist Faya Rose Toure led the demonstration against the building of another structure dedicated to Forrest, according to the report. Toure was arrested at the November meeting when the settlement was approved.
"What we plan to do moving forward is to continue to challenge it," she told WAKA.
The dispute over a monument to Forrest is a long-running one in Selma, AL.com has reported.
Forrest was a confederate general who fought in the Battle of Selma and was the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
The lawsuit settlement called for, among other things, giving a deed to the one-acre site at the cemetery with the Forrest monument to Chapter 53 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy but not allowing original plans to build a taller structure of Forrest.
On The Web: http://blog.al.com/montgomery/2014/01/selma_woman_arrested_during_pr.html
