June 5, 2020

Another One: Confederate Statue Brought Down Under Cover of Darkness

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Overnight Thursday, the government of Mobile, Alabama quietly removed a statue of Confederate navy officer Raphael Semmes that had stood in the city’s downtown since 1900. Earlier in the week, a man had tagged the statue with graffiti phrases including “confed scum.” He was later arrested, and the city workers cleaned the statue, according to local news. 

It’s the latest of over 10 public symbols of racism that have been burned, occupied, or brought down in the recent week of protests. Here is the full running list.  

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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