Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced last week that a statue of Christopher Columbus that was taken down last year in New Jersey’s largest city will be replaced by a statue of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
“Nearly one year after our nation’s racial reckoning and just in time for this year’s celebration of Juneteenth, we are proud to announce the design selected for our new Harriet Tubman monument,” Baraka announced in a statement last Thursday.
The statue will be created by New York-based designer Nina Cooke John, with her design titled “Shadow of a Face” chosen from five proposals.
The new monument will feature a large profile of Tubman and guide visitors through a “multisensory experience” that teaches them about important dates in Tubman’s life.
At least 33 statues of Christopher Columbus have been taken down since demonstrations against racial injustice began in the spring of last year. Cities like Chicago and San Francisco have all decided to remove statues of Columbus.
Though the Italian explorer has been credited with being the first European to discover the Americas, in recent years his history of genocide and slavery has caused many to call for him to no longer be heralded as a positive figure in American history.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}
Washington DC should immediately be renamed after Kunta Kunte
If your mayor is Ras Baraka it makes sense. What a meeskeit!
Disgraceful! Why can’t both stand? Why must the statue of Columbus replaced?
It better not be made of white marble, like the MlK statue in Washington. Cultural appropriation is just terrible, as we have been taught.