A Mississippi city named after President Andrew Jackson will remove a statue of him amid renewed criticism of his legacy.
The city council in Jackson voted 5-1 Tuesday to relocate the bronze figure of its namesake from its perch outside City Hall grounds.
Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said the move will help the state capital “divorce” itself from “the legacy of a brutal owner of enslaved people who was instrumental in initiating the Trail of Tears against indigenous people.”
“While removing a statue does little to change our condition as oppressed people, we should not have to constantly encounter the likenesses of those who profited off of the blood, sweat, & despair of our ancestors or see them immortalized as honorable,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.
No decisions have been made about when or where to move the statue, which was created in 1968. But City Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay suggested it could be moved to a museum.
The city’s decision comes amid calls across the country to take down statues honoring slave owners or people with racist histories.
The only dissenting vote Tuesday came from Councilman Ashby Foote, the sole Republican member, who said “the whole idea of tearing down historical statues and monuments is generally a bad idea,” the Clarion-Ledger reported.
With Post wires