A statue of Abraham Lincoln freeing a slave has been removed in downtown Boston.
“The decision for removal acknowledged the statue’s role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black Americans in shaping the nation’s freedoms,” the Boston Art Commission said in a statement posted on its website.
Known as the Emancipation Group statue or the Freedman’s Memorial, the statue has been in place near Boston Common since 1879 and depicts Lincoln standing over a newly freed slave, Archer Alexander. An inscription on the statue reads, “A race set free/and the country at peace/Lincoln/Rests from his labors.”
“The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and the Boston Art Commission began a public engagement process over the summer that led to the decision to remove and relocate the Emancipation Group statue … As expressed by so many during the public process this year, we fully agree that the statue should be relocated to a new publicly accessible location where its history and context can be better explained. The statue is being stored in a controlled storage facility in South Boston until a new location is determined,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said.
The Boston Art Commission heard nearly two hours of debate on whether to remove the statue over the summer and voted unanimously to remove it. The debate came as riots and protests spread across the country following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
“After engaging in a public process, it’s clear that residents and visitors to Boston have been uncomfortable with this statue, and its reductive representation of the Black man’s role in the abolitionist movement,” Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said in a statement over the summer. “I fully support the Boston Art Commission’s decision for removal and thank them for their work.”
The statue is a copy of a statue in Washington, according to the Boston Herald, which also garnered attention from protesters this summer calling for its removal. The National Guard was called in to protect it.
