ALABAMA — Dead animals and garbage are being dumped on a Montgomery road that played a key role in the city’s civil rights history, authorities say.
Five dead dogs wrapped in sheets and plastic bags were found along Todd Road, a street where Montgomery’s modern push for racial accord began, reported The Montgomery Advertiser. A resident recently reported that someone had also dumped a dead pig and piglets at the site.
City sanitation workers have worked to remove the trash and dead animals, but Montgomery Neighborhood Services Director Amanda Miller told the Advertiser that the problem is ongoing.
She said the two-mile road has long been used as a pass-through, where people have left trash through the neighborhood along the way. But, she said, lately one particular area has been used repeatedly for illegal dumping.
In August, volunteer cleanup crews collected about 1,000 pounds of trash within four hours from the site, “and we didn’t even get it all,” Miller told the Advertiser.
“It’s just so sad. There are other options for people,” she told the Advertiser.
The “Todd Road Incident,” which happened Feb. 27, 1983, racially divided the city after a violent confrontation between two white police officers and a Black family on Todd Road. Afterward, several local groups formed to advocate for better understanding across racial lines.
