A Black Alabama man this week said that he was fighting to save Confederate monuments because members of his adopted white family fought in the U.S. Civil War.

WHNT spoke to Daniel Sims outside the courthouse in Marshall County, where activists are calling for the removal of Confederate monuments. Sims said that he opposed the effort to take down the monuments.

“Regardless of how the next person feels, I’m not going to take my flag down,” Sims said. “If I’ve got anything to do with it, ain’t no monument going to come down.”

Sims went on to explain that he was adopted by a white family as a child.

“My whole family is white,” Sims told WHNT, “went to all-white school, grew up in all-white neighborhood. My grandfather was white and he was the main one that fought in this war here. And he’s taught me everything I know.”

“They may make my blood boil if they just feel like they can come up here and feel like they can just tear it down,” he added. “I don’t see me still living if they do that. That monument ain’t hurting nobody. That monument ain’t killing a soul. It ain’t talking bad to nobody. It ain’t even racist!”

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