COMMUNITY ALERTS

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Friends:

PLEASE DONATE TO OUR GOFUNDME to raise funds to encourage the City of Brunswick to remove the confederate statue from Hanover Square. It is long past time that symbols glorifying white supremacy were eradicated from Ahmaud Arbery's hometown.

As you know, a 20-foot tall confederate statue looms over Brunswick's historic Hanover Square in the heart of this city. At two recent city commission hearings on the future of this monument, the handful of residents who sought to keep it were vastly outnumbered by those, young and old, black and brown and white, who spoke passionately for its removal.

We made a commitment, that if the city would do the right thing, we would raise the money to cover its legal costs.

The commission is saying they will vote on Wednesday, November 18th. We hope to tell them before then that we are making great progress in raising the money.

Not long ago, Georgia, along with many other states, southern and otherwise, passed laws making it illegal to remove a confederate memorial from a public space to one less visible. Although other cities in Georgia and throughout the South have chosen to remove their monuments anyway, Brunswick's Mayor and City Commissioners cite this law as a barrier to doing the right thing.

You can help enormously by donating to mitigate this barrier.

And by continuing to contact the Mayor and Commission and submitting letters to the editor.

The Abbott Institute and other groups and individuals in our community are working tirelessly to eradicate the stranglehold of racism on our institutions, our schools, our governments and on the hearts and minds of our citizens. We are working to address these issues at every level of change. And if the City Commission doesn't do the right thing Nov. 18, we will keep at them until they do.

WE KNOW THE WORLD IS WATCHING. AND WE ARE GRATEFUL.

Roxane George

Executive Board Member

AUGUST 31, 2020

Dear Members,

The Mayor and Commissioners of the city of Brunswick have before them the important decision of whether or not to remove the statue in Hanover Square that stands as a monument to the confederacy that fought to overturn the union of the United States in order to preserve the horrendous institution of slavery.

It is crucial that we all urge the Mayor and Commission to do the right thing and remove the statue. The Abbott Institute Board has sent a letter [READ HERE] to do just that and we hope you will do the same.

ACT NOW

Please sign this petition http://chng.it/RP4jfsrkBQ

and email and/or call the Brunswick Mayor and Commissioners by no later than Wednesday, September 2.

Tell them we cannot overcome racism, heal the wounds of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and become a united community while we continue to let a monument to the cruelty of slavery, lynching and Jim Crow segregation stand in our public space.

Many southern cities have defied state law to remove these monuments – the city of Brunswick should take that stand as well.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE http://chng.it/RP4jfsrkBQ

CALL AND/OR EMAIL:

Cornell L. Harvey

Mayor

City of Brunswick, Georgia

Email: mayorcharvey@gmail.com

Phone: 912-262-1529 (C) 912-571-2218

Vincent Williams

Mayor Pro Tem

City of Brunswick, Georgia

Email: commvtwilliams@gmail.com