Read on Twitter
1: Quick thread on statues and the relation btw how they are funded and what they represent, both figuratively & more broadly, w/ a focus on the Freedman’s Memorial in Lincoln Park.
2: There’s an attempt underway to replace a statue in Boston, memorializing emancipation, of Lincoln standing over a kneeling, nearly naked slave, “still on his knees.” The mayor seems to support the move. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/why-is-he-still-on-his-knees-calls-grow-to-remove-statue-of-lincoln-freed-black-man/2143071/?fbclid=IwAR09siNyM3KReNjQ1PWhJOyTtAm6TyerbS8UNOuLAcazf_NzfBcej6Gedd8
3: That statue is a replica of one in a Capitol Hill park (just a few blocks from where I live), known as the Freedman’s Memorial. It was unveiled in 1876, in a grand ceremony in which Frederick Douglass gave keynote. (In D. Blight’s bio of FD, the unveiling is the opening scene)
4: Like in Boston, this depiction has disturbed many DC residents; there’s a petition circulating now to remove it as well. The complicating factor is that the statue was funded entirely by freedmen & women, who raised some $20,000 to honor Lincoln, soon after his assassination.
5: Here’s a Post piece from 2012 abt the different, conflicted & ambivalent attitudes toward the statue in the DC Black community. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/on-emancipation-day-in-dc-two-memorials-tell-very-different-stories/2012/04/15/gIQAj3u9JT_story.html?fbclid=IwAR1lofYf2uzUZeGggL1RSQd83l_uaChFd60XVh8vEqSjroabc4OpfcbK324
6: So what we have here is an inverse scenario to more conventional ‘tainted $’ problem. Instead of the origins of a gift being noxious but substance of the gift itself potentially redeeming those roots, here the roots are what could redeem a gift that many consider demeaning.
7: Honestly, I don’t know what the right response is & I don’t think the decision should be mine to make. But it touches on some much broader questions abt the rel. btw how gifts are funded and what they mean to the public more broadly. It’s worth following closely.
8: And here's some reporting on the DC campaign to get the Freedman's Memorial removed: https://dcist.com/story/20/06/20/thousands-call-for-the-removal-of-a-statue-of-abraham-lincoln-with-degrading-racial-undertones-in-capitol-hill/?fbclid=IwAR07-_ypPAb-Abe9_ao_xQc-HgKENGAXgaCxl1RHGzzRW1_1C87Mxf8qWAs
9: Increased police presence guarding the statue today, apparently: https://twitter.com/A_Wilkins_/status/1275227777688625154
