Cuomo, de Blasio support Natural History Museum removal of Roosevelt statue
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are backing the Museum of Natural History’s decision to remove the Teddy Roosevelt statue from its Upper West Side entrance amid backlash following race-based protests over the death of George Floyd.
The museum was granted permission by the city to remove the bronze sculpture of Roosevelt on Sunday.
“I think the museum has a made a decision. They think the statue in this environment is in bad taste, they want to take it down, I support their decision,” Cuomo said Monday morning during an MSNBC interview.
De Blasio shortly after echoed the sentiment during a press conference in Manhattan.
“I have looked at it and I think Roosevelt himself is another one of these complex figures in American history, he did some extraordinarily progressive things that we feel to this day and he did some things that I think are deeply troubling,” de Blasio said.
Roosevelt was the nation’s 26th president, a New York state senator, founder of the “Rough Riders” cavalry during the 1898 Spanish-American War and cousin to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president.
The tribute depicts Roosevelt on horseback, with a Native American man on one side and a black man on the other.
It’s been outside the museum’s Central Park West entrance between 81st and 77th streets since 1940.
But the sculpture has been criticized for symbolizing imperialism and colonialism in the past, and has become one of many historic symbols up for re-examination.
It was also vandalized with paint in 2017 following a spree of white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va.
“I think there’s a separate question between him the person, and the actual statue. The statue has representations that clearly do not represent today’s values. The statute clearly presents a white man as superior to people of color and that’s just not acceptable in this day and age and it never should have been acceptable,” de Blasio added.
“So I know the museum feels it’s best to take it down and I support that decision. They felt that’s what was right for them as a museum and I understand why they’re doing it and I respect it.”
The museum’s move follows a push by liberal city council members to oust a sculpture of founding father Thomas Jefferson from the council’s chamber inside City Hall.
The coalition, led by Council Speaker Corey Johnson, argues Jefferson owned several slaves and also fathered children with one of his enslaved women.
A stature of George Washington outside City Hall could also be up for removal.
De Blasio has kicked responsibility to a committee headed by his wife, aspiring Brooklyn Borough president Chirlane McCray, that will decide both statues’ fate.