WASHINGTON – The DC Republican Committee issued the following statement in response to the potential toppling of the Emancipation Statue at Lincoln Park, a National Park Service park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC:
“When did burning, looting, and statue toppling go mainstream?” noted DC Republican Committee Chairwoman Darlene Glymph. “As a black woman and a descendent of slaves myself, the civil rights movement I know is marked by peaceful discourse, not about mob rule and destruction.”
She continued, “Do I like the visual of a black man squatting in a loincloth before Lincoln? No, but that doesn’t mean I or any mob has the right to topple a statue. While many do not believe the freedman is properly depicted clothed in a loincloth kneeling before President Lincoln in the Emancipation Statue, in our society we do not simply let the mob remove things that they do not like. We have a civil discourse. We talk about the things perceived to need changing and then we follow the appropriate official channels to make change.”
“In America, we don’t let the mob burn books they do not like at our public schools or libraries. We do not let them desecrate works at our museums they find unsettling. We have a civil discourse, follow the appropriate channels, and then decide. Let’s have a civil discourse on the statue of Abraham Lincoln and Archer Alexander. If you are really unhappy – one way or another – give Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton a call or send her a note.”
Unveiled on April 14, 1876, on the 11th anniversary of President Lincoln’s death, the Emancipation Statue depicts Abraham Lincoln with a squatting figure modeled after Archer Alexander, the final human being captured under the Fugitive Slave Act. The statue is located in Lincoln Park, a National Park Service park located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC.
The DC Republican Committee is made up of registered Republicans living throughout the District of Columbia in all eight wards who are nominated and elected to serve as members.
