Democrats demand removal of Lincoln Emancipation Memorial in DC

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House Democrats proposed legislation Wednesday to remove the Emancipation Memorial from Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., which they said portrays a racially insensitive image of President Abraham Lincoln freeing an enslaved man. 

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., reintroduced legislation to remove the statue Wednesday – the first day of Black History Month. She first announced her plan to propose the bill in the House in 2020. The delegate noted that the statue was initially paid for by freed slaves, but said the design was not representative of their struggles. 

"Although formerly enslaved Americans paid for this statue, the design and sculpting process was done without their input or participation, and it shows," Norton said in a statement announcing the legislation.

"The statue fails to depict how enslaved African Americans pressed for their own emancipation. At the time, they had only recently been liberated from slavery and were grateful for any recognition of their freedom. However, in his keynote address at the unveiling of the statue, Frederick Douglass pointedly did not praise the statue, and, indeed, in private remarks, went as far as to say, it ‘showed the Negro on his knee when a more manly attitude would have been indicative of freedom.’"

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House Democrats proposed legislation Wednesday to remove the Emancipation Memorial from Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., which they said portrays a racially insensitive image of President Abraham Lincoln and a slave. (Getty Images)

Six Democratic representatives backed Norton's legislation as cosponsors. The bill was referred Wednesday to the House Committee on Natural Resources. The previous version of the bill did not receive a vote in the House.

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Boston removed a replica of the Emancipation Memorial in 2020 after a unanimous vote from city officials.

Boston removed a replica of the Emancipation Memorial in 2020 after a unanimous vote from city officials. The statue was designed by Thomas Ball, a Boston native. 

"Boston removed its replica of the statue in favor of placing it in a publicly accessible location where it can be better contextualized," Norton said. "It is time for Congress to place the original statue in a museum, too."

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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., was joined by six congressional Democrats who cosigned her bill to remove the Emancipation Memorial. (Jemal Countess via Getty Images)

The memorial was dedicated to mark the 11th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1876 and shows the former president holding a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." The statue has been a hotspot for protests in recent years as organizers have decried its imagery as racially insensitive. 

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"What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the Negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man," Norton said.

The push to remove the memorial comes after dozens of Confederate statues were removed around the country after protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020.