Boston Will Remove A Statue Of A Freed Slave Kneeling At Abraham Lincoln’s Feet

A Boston committee has voted unanimously to remove a statue of a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln’s feet, ABC News reported.

The monument, titled Emancipation, or more officially, The Emancipation Group and the Freedman’s Memorial, has stood in Boston since 1879. The statue, which is an exact copy of a monument that had been erected three years earlier in Washington, D.C., depicts a freed slave kneeling at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Boston was given a copy of the statue because its creator, Thomas Ball, was himself a Bostonian.

The inscription on both monuments reads, “A race set free and the country at peace. Lincoln rests from his labors.”

However, for years, the city has faced calls for its removal. Opponents say the monument, though well-intentioned in its day, depicts a scene that is potentially cringe-inducing when viewed through the lens of modern attitudes.

Ekua Holmes, vice-chairperson of the city’s arts commission, says that that’s what she’s been hearing from fellow Bostonians.

“What I heard today is that it hurts to look at this piece, and in the Boston landscape, we should not have works that bring shame to any groups of people,” she said.

Indeed, complaints against the statue have been escalating recently in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Further, the city considered removing the statue as early as 2018. At the time, the city undertook a plan to examine monuments and other public artworks with a view toward determining ones that were potentially offensive to communities of color or that depicted individuals with problematic histories.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement that he agrees that it’s clear that the people of Boston want the statue gone.

“After engaging in a public process, it’s clear that residents and visitors to Boston have been uncomfortable with this statue,” he said.

For now, officials have not set a specific date for the statue’s removal, planning instead to take up discussing the nuts and bolts of the process at its next meeting, which is set for July 14.

The cost to remove the statue is estimated to cost about $15,000, according to WBUR. For now, it’s not clear what will become of the monument, but officials say it may wind up in a museum, where it could be protected from vandals and placed in its historical context.

Protesters have vowed to forcibly tear down the original Emancipation monument in Washington, and National Guard troops have been protecting it and other controversial statues in the city.