Jackson City Council Votes To Remove Statue of Namesake President
The Jackson, Mississippi, City Council on Tuesday voted 5-1 to remove and relocate a statue of 19th-century President Andrew Jackson — for whom the state capital is named — from the city building, according to the Clarion Ledger.
The lone Republican on the city council voted to keep the statue.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba released a statement on Twitter explaining the reasons for removing the statue.
“While removing a statue does little to change our condition as oppressed people, we should not have to constantly encounter the likenesses of those who profited off of the blood, sweat, & despair of our ancestors or see them immortalized as honorable,” Lumumba wrote.
We should not have to constantly encounter the likenesses of those who profited off of the blood, sweat, & despair of our ancestors or see them immortalized as honorable. pic.twitter.com/UjCPiTeDO2
— Chokwe Antar Lumumba (@ChokweALumumba) July 8, 2020
Lumumba said the goal, in part, was to “reclaim the name of our city.”
The statue of Andrew Jackson, built in 1968, is mounted in the center of a brick fountain in a plaza directly outside City Hall.
The statue has been criticized because Jackson was a slave owner and presided over the removal of Native Americans from their lands.
Statues of historical figures associated with slavery and the Confederacy have been torn down and vandalized in recent weeks.
President Trump signed an executive order in June to strengthen legal protections for statues and monuments.
The Jackson City Council has not released a timeline for the removal of the statue, but it will likely be relocated to a museum, according to the Clarion Ledger.
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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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