Statue Of Teddy Roosevelt To Be Removed From The Steps Of Museum Of Natural History

The statue of President Teddy Roosevelt will be removed from in front of the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The statue has drawn protests over the years as a symbol of colonialism, depicting Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American man standing on one side and a black man standing on the other side.

The statue has stood on the front steps of the museum since 1940, according to the New York Times.

Calls for the statue’s removal have intensified after the death of George Floyd, amid nationwide protests over racism.

The museum asked the city’s permission to remove the statue, and the city obliged.

“Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd. We have watched as the attention of the world, and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism,” the museum’s president, Ellen Futter, told the NYT.

“Simply put, the time has come to move it,” Futter added