Protesters vowed to return to Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Park to tear down the Emancipation Memorial this Thursday evening.
Video of protesters in Lincoln Park on Tuesday showed one activist telling those gathered that they will return to the area on Thursday at 7 p.m. to tear “this motherf—-r down.” The protester also urged the audience to go to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s house and to donate to their cause for supplies.
Protester at Emancipation Monument claims that they will be tearing down the monument Thursday at 7 PM.
Also calls for them to show up at Senator Mitch McConnell’s home. pic.twitter.com/LJ8e2f5KRG
— Richie?McG? (@RichieMcGinniss) June 23, 2020
The Emancipation Memorial depicts President Abraham Lincoln freeing a slave in chains while holding the Emancipation Proclamation. The bronze statue was installed in 1876. Although financed entirely by freed slaves and dedicated by the abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a ceremony attended by President Ulysses S. Grant, its detractors have charged that the black person depicted is a racist caricature.
Protesters gathered around the statue, which was erected in 1876, on Tuesday to call for its removal.
“Thursday at 7 PM, we tearing this motherfucker down!”
(loud cheering) pic.twitter.com/hLTqlhocZR— Richie?McG? (@RichieMcGinniss) June 24, 2020
“To achieve true justice, we are not working with the police, nor will we seek any relationship with them,” the Freedom Neighborhood wrote in an Instagram post advertising the Tuesday protest. “In order to create change, we will do so by any means necessary. If you want a revolution, it won’t happen by being peaceful.”
Eleanor Holmes Norton, who serves as a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives for D.C., said she also supports the statue’s memorial.
“Because Lincoln Park is National Park Service (NPS) land, I will work with the NPS to see whether NPS has the authority to remove the statue without an act of Congress, and if so, we will seek its removal without a bill,” Norton’s office said in a statement, according to WUSA9. “This statue has been controversial from the start. It is time it was placed in a museum.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas responded to the reports about the planned toppling, saying he “better see a lot of police ready to stop this.”
“Once again, this isn’t about “offensive” history. Never has been. The Emancipation Memorial was paid for by freed slaves, to honor Lincoln,” he tweeted. “This is, and always has been, about erasing America herself.”
Tomorrow night. I better see a lot of police ready to stop this.
Once again, this isn’t about “offensive” history. Never has been. The Emancipation Memorial was paid for by freed slaves, to honor Lincoln.
This is, and always has been, about erasing America herself. #HoldTheLine https://t.co/1Y594QpnqS
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) June 24, 2020
