The statue of President Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States whose portrait also appears on the $20 bill, is set to be removed from outside the City Hall in Jackson, Mississippi, following the city council voting in favor of its removal.
The decision to remove the statue of the president with connections to slavery and racism follows as similar moves had been taken across the States in the wake of protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
President Jackson, whose statue the protesters previously attempted to topple at a park near the White House, is infamous for owning slaves and a slave-worked plantation as well as overseeing a forced migration of the natives.
Following the 5-1 vote in favor of the removal of Jackson’s statue from the premises of Jackson City Hall, councilman Melvin Priester confirmed that the historic monument would be removed after “appropriate research” is done.
One of the supporters of the statue’s removal was also Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba who suggested that “we should not have to constantly encounter the likenesses of those who profited off of the blood, sweat, and despair of our ancestors or see them immortalized as honorable.”
“When I took office, I found out the name Jackson means ‘God has shown favor’.point 294 |
So, we want to reclaim the name of our city for that meaning and divorce it from the legacy of a brutal owner of enslaved people who was instrumental in initiating the Trail of Tears against indigenous people,” the mayor said.point 188 | 1
“Black people have reclaimed and repurposed names given to our families by slave owners for centuries. This is no different.”
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Replaced!