BOSTON (WHDH) - The Boston Art Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to remove a controversial statue of Abraham Lincoln from its Park Square perch.
The statue, entitled “The Emancipation Group“, is a copy of a statue in Washington D.C. created by Thomas Ball, and has been criticized since its installation in 1879 for its depiction of an enslaved man, according to a joint release issued by the BAC, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
“As we continue our work to make Boston a more equitable and just city, it’s important that we look at the stories being told by the public art in all of our neighborhoods,” Walsh said. “After engaging in a public process, it’s clear that residents and visitors to Boston have been uncomfortable with this statue, and its reductive representation of the Black man’s role in the abolitionist movement. I fully support the Boston Art Commission’s decision for removal and thank them for their work.”
“The Emancipation Group“ was gifted to the city by local politician Moses Kimball and depicts Abraham Lincoln, whose right-hand rests on the Emancipation Proclamation.
His left is raised in a gesture of benediction above the crouched figure of Archer Alexander, a Black man who assisted the Union Army, escaped slavery, and was recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act.
There is an inscription on the front of the piece that reads, “A race set free/ and the country at peace / Lincoln / Rests from his labors.”
“Public art is storytelling at the street level. As such, the imagery should strike the heart and engage the mind,” said Ekua Holmes, Vice-Chair of the Boston Art Commission. What I heard today is that it hurts to look at this piece, and in the Boston landscape we should not have works that bring shame to any groups of people, not only in Boston but across the entire United States.”
The statue will be removed once an art conservator is brought in to supervise its transportation to storage and the commission can document the piece in multiple mediums into its archives.
A public event will be created to acknowledge the statue’s history and members will begin the process of contextualizing the piece so that it may be placed into a new publically accessible setting.
According to the release, generations of Bostonians have taken issue with the statue. Many said the implication that one man ended slavery misrepresents the complexity of United States history.
A recent petition calling for the removal of the statue gained 12,000 signatures.
Members of the BAC will discuss the statue’s official removal date on July 14.
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