On Tuesday, workers dismantled a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Boston after the city agreed with protesters who say the memorial is demeaning and lacks proper context. The statue depicts Lincoln holding his hand over a kneeling Black man, a figure modeled by Archer Alexander, the last man captured under the Fugitive Slave Act.
While the Emancipation Group statue was initially meant to commemorate the liberation of slaves, critics said its depiction of the formerly enslaved man on his knees in front of a white man did little to celebrate his freedom.
A critique of the statue published in the Harvard Library reads: “One can view the freedman, with his nudity and kneeling position, as bereft of his dignity and agency, and, contrastingly, the fully clothed Lincoln, with his hand extending over him, as a demonstration of white mastery and supremacy.”
Tory Bullock, who helped push the petition for the statue’s removal, said he also interpreted the monument in a negative light.
He told the Boston Herald “At the top of my petition, I described being a kid and I would always ask myself, ‘If he’s free, why is he still on his knees?’ After this, no kid will ever have to ask that again.”
According to CNN, the statue is a replica of one erected in Washington, D.C. It’s based on a picture of Archer Alexander, who was born into slavery. The original work, which came to be known as the Emancipation Group, was purchased through donations by freed enslaved people and Black veterans of the Union Army. A copy was then erected in Boston, Ball’s hometown.
“I’m proud, I’m Black and I’m young,” Bullock told the outlet. “This image has been doing a lot of disservice to African Americans in Boston and now it stops.”
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told CNN that the statue wouldn’t be destroyed, but instead, it would be relocated to a location where “its history and context can be better explained.”
They said, “The decision for removal acknowledges the statue’s role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black Americans in shaping the nation’s fight for freedom.”
