One of the oddest items you might hope to find in Brum is the JFK Memorial in Digbeth. The original was put up by the Irish community in 1968 outside St Chad’s about a mile north of here but was demolished for a new road in 2007. The son of the original artist recovered what he could of it and re-did the one you see above.
Originally, the inscription was
THERE ARE NO WHITE OR COLOURED SIGNS ON THE GRAVEYARDS OF BATTLE
which was a blatant dig at the racial strife in the States at the time…thank God THAT’s all sorted itself out. The new inscription is a little less passive aggressive and bears an error of fact (should read “1961-3“).
A really nice thread running from 2009 until just after the reinstallation in 2013 exists over on the Birmingham History Forum. The detail photos, alone are worth the visit.
Endless British Pub Crawl (Part 3) 