Statues commemorating former President Ulysses S. Grant and U.S. national anthem author Francis Scott Key were toppled by protesters in San Francisco on Friday night.
San Francisco police confirmed that more than 400 people gathered in Golden Gate Park at around 8 p.m. PDT last night, and videos circulating on social media show protesters gleefully celebrating bringing the statues down.
#BREAKING: Demonstrators topple statues in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. @hurd_hurd will have details on our News at 11. https://t.co/RvmlMqu73s pic.twitter.com/iUZE28AvdD
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) June 20, 2020
Grant, who was born into an abolitionist household and freed a slave he owned before the outbreak of the Civil War, wrote bitterly about the Confederacy and promised to “whip the rebellion into submission” in a letter written following the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
“My inclination is to whip the rebellion into submission, preserving all Constitutional rights,” Grant wrote. “If it cannot be whipped any other way than through a war against slavery, let it come to that legitimately. If it is necessary that slavery should fall that the Republic may continue its existence, let slavery go.”
Grant led the Union Army to victory and was instrumental in helping the United States stop the practice of slavery.
Key, who was a slave owner, wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner” while witnessing an American flag flying at the Battle of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
More than 20 U.S. cities have had statues toppled or ripped down by protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the custody of Minneapolis police.
