A group claiming responsibility for stealing a Confederate monument worth half a million dollars in Selma, Alabama, demanded a banner be hung up as a ransom for it.
The group calling themselves White Lies Matter wrote in emails sent out Monday to Montgomery Advertiser and AL.com that they will return the stone chair to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) if they erect a banner outside their Richmond, Virginia headquarters.
“Failure to do so will result in the monument, an ornate stone chair, immediately being turned into a toilet,” White Lies Matter warned in the email, AL.com reported. “If they do display the banner, not only will we return the chair intact, but we will clean it to boot,” the group wrote.
This maybe the wackiest Civil War memory story in a while. 20 years from now this will make a great vignette in a book on Civil War memory. https://t.co/sc8T1PwbhU
— Dr. Adam H. Domby (@AdamHDomby) April 5, 2021
The banner must be put up at 1 p.m. Friday and left hanging for the following twenty-four hours, the group demanded, according to AL.com. Friday marks the anniversary of Confederate surrender in the Civil War.
White Lies Matter said they had already delivered the banner to UDC, AL.com reported. It reportedly quotes, “The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives.”
The stolen $500,000 worth artifact, the Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair, was erected 1893 in Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s memory, 20 years after he visited Selma, Montgomery Advertiser reported. (RELATED: Texas County Commissioners Vote Unanimously To Keep Confederate Monument Outside Courthouse)
The Selma City Council transferred ownership of the chair along with multiple other Confederate and historical artifacts to UDC in 2011, according to the outlet.
The chair was at the Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma until it was reported stolen on Mar. 19, according to AL.com.
“We took their toy, and we don’t feel guilty about it. They never play with it anyway. They just want it there to remind us what they’ve done,” the group wrote in the note, according to AL.com.
Selma police and District Attorney Michael Jackson confirmed to the outlet that the robbery did take place and that they have knowledge of White Lies Matter’s demands, AL.com reported.