[Lincolnparkdc] NextDoor--petition and debate about Lincoln Park statue

[regina arlotto]

Here's an article A Monument to White Supremacy in Our Own Backyard
<https://medium.com/@raulspeaks/a-monument-to-white-supremacy-stands-uncontested-in-our-own-back-yard-672f26db429c>
which provides additional historical context. It was written in 2017. A
couple of interesting points:

   - Notably, and perhaps most importantly, the freed slaves who raised the
   $17000 for the statue were not consulted in the design at all. An all white
   male commission chose the design. The chairman used his own servant, a
   freed slave from Missouri (where slaves were not freed by way of the
   Emancipation Declaration, for which the statue is named) for the facial
   features.
   - As others have mentioned, *even at the dedication*, Frederick Douglass
   criticized the statue as it: "“showed the Negro on his knee when a more
   manly attitude would have been indicative of freedom.”
   - Numerous contemporary and more recent art historians have also
   criticized the design for the way the freed slave looks to be shining
   Lincoln's shoes, or Lincoln patting him on the head. It's sad, to note that
   paternalistic overtones were very common for the time, even from dedicated
   abolitionists. So no white person seemed to have a problem with it.

As I mentioned before, I think it should be removed . Perhaps it can be
placed in a museum where it can be properly displayed as part of a larger
exhibit that reckons with our deeply racist past as a country. Maybe
someday we can have a Reconciliation Commission that will help us move
forward. However, for all the fans of this statue who don't seem to mind
that it is (as it was on the day it was dedicated) offensive to many
persons of color, apparently it cannot be moved without an act of Congress.

Gina Arlotto
100 bl. Kentucky

On Sun, Jun 21, 2020 at 11:53 AM Leslie Tentler <tentler at cua.edu> wrote:

> Three points in re the Lincoln statue:
> No matter the deficiencies of the statue in our eyes or indeed those of
> Frederick Douglass, the freedmen and women who donated funds for its
> erection intended to honor Lincoln.  Not Douglass or Harriet Tuman or
> Sojourner Truth or anyone else we might regard as more appropriate.  Who
> are we to say that they got it wrong?
> The African-American community in DC endowed the statue with a
> liberationist meaning by choosing it as a site of their annual Emancipation
> Day celebrations in the late 19th century.  Several community groups have
> recently revived the custom.  Who are we to tell them that they were acting
> out of ignorance?
> We are fortunate in DC to have two other Civil War memorials with which
> the Lincoln Park statue is in a fruitful dialogue:  the Shaw Memorial, a
> cast of which is in the National Gallery, and the African-American Civil
> War Memorial at 10th and U NW.  Taken together, the three provide a
> tutorial of sorts with regard to the nation's evolving understanding of the
> Civil War's meaning.  Sanitizing the past is almost a guarantee that people
> will fail to understand the present in a full and nuanced way.
> Leslie Tentler
>
> On Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 7:36 PM jobyl boone <jobyl01 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> FYI, there is now an ongoing debate and petition to remove the statue
>> from Lincoln Park on NextDoor.
>> https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=152195306
>>
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