Statue of Lincoln and Freed Slave Removed from Boston Park, Ending Its 141-Year Stand
A memorial that has stood as a reminder about freedom and liberty for over a century is finally coming down after complaints from racial activists, who claimed the statue carried a hidden meaning demeaning black people.
The Emancipation Group statue, depicting President Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave, was quietly removed from its spot in Boston Park Tuesday after Boston city officials voted to bring the monument down this past June, NBC News reported.
The monument, which was erected in 1879, was moved to a temporary storage facility, according to the City of Boston. The city is now asking residents to help determine the statue’s future.
The removal comes months after a June meeting where the Boston Art Commission unanimously voted to take down the statue after only five hours of testimony and discussion, much of it appearing to revolve around the apparent “racist” message hidden in the memorial.
“The decision for removal acknowledged the statue’s role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black Americans in shaping the nation’s freedoms,” the city said in a statement.
The movement to remove the statue was spearheaded by Tory Bullock, who claimed the tribute to Lincoln’s freeing of the slaves carried a hidden racist message.
After gaining more than 12,000 signatures on a petition, Bullock was finally able to convince the city to address the monument.
“It says that it’s a statue that’s supposed to represent freedom. But, to me, it represents submissiveness,” Bullock said in June. “It represents: ‘Know your place, because that’s where you belong.'”
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Perhaps those who should be the most insulted by Bullock and Boston’s move are the freed slaves who helped fund the Emancipation Memorial, of which the city’s Emancipation Group is a replica.
According to the National Parks Service, the original installation in Washington, D.C. was funded solely by freed slaves, who were seemingly eager to leave future generations a reminder of their treatment and determination to rise above it.
Unfortunately, their lessons fall flat in the new woke America.
Now, a statue design brought to life by ex-slaves is being moved to a warehouse because of the demeaning message some modern Americans say it carries.
Video shows city workers using a lift to hoist the statue from its base. Covered in protective blankets, it’s then seen being leaving for its new home.
The controversial Emancipation Group statue in Boston has been taken down. In June, an online petition called for the statue’s removal and in July, the Boston Art Commission voted unanimously to take it down. |
Read the full story –> https://t.co/CboKT9WdzN pic.twitter.com/8W6yn2Uh4f— Boston 25 News (@boston25) December 29, 2020
The fate of the monument will now be largely left up to the general public.
With leftist America’s embrace of cancel culture far from over, there’s little doubt that statues and memorials will continue to fall to progressive revisionism.
And if Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave are not safe from the woke mob, who is?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
