A historical marker in Kelly Ingram Park honoring civil rights activist the Rev. Calvin Woods Sr. was pulled from the ground and cut in two last week, and Woods suspects it has something to do with the heated Birmingham mayoral campaign.
Woods is the father of Chris Woods, one of seven candidates challenging incumbent Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin in the upcoming Aug. 24 election.
Woods, who dealt with the Ku Klux Klan on a frequent basis in the 1960s, doubts that it was a racist motive.
“No white folk, no Klan did that,” Woods said of the plaque erected in his honor in 2014. “It’s been up all that time.”
Less than a month ago, Chris Woods sent out a campaign brochure of him standing next to the sign. Woods Sr. believes the destruction of sign is directly related to that.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “Someone moved it and they found it in two pieces. I really don’t know who did it. There are a lot of suspicions. Nothing has ever happened to it before.”
It feels like a political “dirty trick,” Woods Sr. said.
“My son is in the mayoral race,” he said. “The card shows a picture of him standing by the historical marker, saying he had learned a lot from me and his uncle, Abraham Woods.”
It also featured an endorsement.
“On the back of the card is a picture of my son and former federal judge U.W. Clemon,” Woods Sr. said. “He’s shaking Chris’ hand.”
Supporters of another candidate critical of candidate Chris Woods and his endorsement from Clemon may be a possible explanation, Woods Sr. said.
“It’s very suspicious,” Woods Sr. said. “This sign was never damaged before that.”
Woods Sr. said he reported the missing sign on Monday, after he was told of damage that happened the week before.
“One piece ended up at Legion Field and another piece ended up somewhere else in a facility owned by the city,” Woods Sr. said. “Then it was taken to the Civil Rights Institute. That’s where the broken pieces are now.”
It was cut into two pieces, apparently by a saw capable of cutting metal. “Something strong had to cut it,” Woods Sr. said.
“We have reached out to park staff this week,” the Birmingham Police Department said in a statement this morning. “At this time, there is no evidence that this was an act of vandalism. Also, there have been no reports filed with our Department.”
A park representative said staff removed the sign for the safety of the public due to the damage posing risks to those near the sign.
Woods Sr. said that there are numerous surveillance cameras in the area and it’s likely the incident was caught on video.
Bishop Woods and his brother, the Rev. Abraham Woods, were key Birmingham civil rights activists who assisted the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in organizing the civil rights marches and protests in 1963.
“I’m one of the few who was there back there when the movement started,” Woods Sr. said. “I’m still doing the best I can.”
The historical plaque honoring Bishop Calvin Woods Sr., shown before it was damaged.
The historical marker was damaged within the past week.
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