“Although formerly enslaved Americans paid for this statue to be built in 1876, the design and sculpting process was done without their input and it shows,” Holmes Norton said in a statement. “The statue fails to note in any way how enslaved African Americans pushed for their own emancipation.”
The nonprofit UrbanCURE held an “Emancipation Celebration” Tuesday at Lincoln Park near the now fenced-off statue to promote their petition asserting the statue is “part of the heart and soul of our country.”
“Claiming ‘racism’ about this statue shows the ignorance of this movement. Black folk like DC Mayor Bowser and Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton need to learn black history,” said Star Parker, founder of UrbanCURE, in a statement. “Archer Alexander is not kneeling; as a track star prepared to run a dash, the kinetic motion in this figure shows him just emancipated to stand and run his race as a free man.”
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