Washington, D.C. — Protesters on Tuesday rallied for the removal of a memorial celebrating President Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation of slaves during the Civil War.

The Emancipation Memorial, erected in 1876, has long been the subject of controversy. Although financed entirely by freed slaves and dedicated by the abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a ceremony attended by President Ulysses S. Grant, its detractors charge that the black person depicted is a racist caricature. And Marcus Goodwin, the 30-year-old independent running for the district City Council who organized the event, said it’s time to retire the statue.