An Alabama judge ordered a Confederate heritage group to remove the Tuskegee monument honoring Confederate soldiers from Macon County after ruling the organization does not have the rights to the property the statue is situated on.

The Confederate statue has pained Tuskegee, where 93 percent of the population is Black, and there have been several attempts to remove the statue, including in 2021 by its former mayor.

The order stems from a lawsuit filed in Macon County District Court by the county and three Black Macon County residents over who owns the land opposite the county courthouse in Tuskegee where the monument was built.

The plaintiffs argued that in 1906, the Macon County Court of County Commissioners — a predecessor of the Macon County Commission — unconstitutionally transferred the parcel to the Tuskegee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy “for the purpose of maintaining a park for white people and maintaining a monument to the memory of the Confederate soldiers of Macon County.”

The 1906 resolution also said the property “shall revert to Macon County” if the property is not used as a park for white people, the plaintiffs claimed.

In his order issued Thursday, Macon County District Court Judge Stephen Perryman ruled in favor of the county and the three residents.

“There is no evidence that the property has ever been used for a park for white people; therefore, the reversion clause causes the vesting of fee simple title to said tract to Macon County,” Perryman’s order stated.

Jay Hinton, an attorney representing the Tuskegee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, called the judge’s ruling “sad” and the county’s action “shameful.”

“Rather than discriminate as the county required in its deed, the Tuskegee Daughters have, for 115 years, made the downtown park open to all. For this good behavior, they are now punished. The county has taken the chapter’s property because it would not discriminate. Shameful,” he told AL.com.

“It is wrong to discriminate against someone because of their race; it is equally wrong to take someone’s property because they won’t discriminate,” Hinton continued. “The court has enforced the racially restrictive covenant as requested by Macon County and her lawyers.”

Hinton did not say whether the group intends to appeal the judge’s order.

Perryman gave the Confederate heritage organization 60 days to remove the monument.