Remove The Emancipation Memorial/Freedman Statue

Off with his head

Boston has a few (but not enough) monuments to our black citizens, but this one is an embarrassment and needs to go.

Remove all racist iconography.

Please remove statue. This is demeaning & not something to commemorate.

I agree with Frederick Douglass, it is inappropriate. He knew it 100 years ago. This statue represents a subservient relationship that is demeaning to Boston’s Black community. As I said, Frederick Douglass was absolutely correct.

We should have statues pointing towards moments in history where blacks showed their capacity to liberate themselves: this is their capacity. This statue points towards a racist view of the world where blacks are always dependent where whites save minorities from the atrocities they inflicted on them. In short this statue is a terrible image.

This image should not be forced upon our kids. This does not look like a man freeing a slave. It needs to be removed.

ap

It’s demeaning take it down

Boston might want to step up if they want to proclaim themselves as any sort of progressive enclave, as it often likes to do.

This statue reinforces the wrong message and it is time for it to go. Boston can do so much better.

This image is degrading and perpetuates a white savior narrative. I'd love to see it replaced by a more empowered image of a formerly enslaved person to celebrate emancipation!

I think it's time to dismantle the racist myth of the white savior and build a more equitable Boston that values Black lives.

Please remove this statue.

I have HATED this statue ever since I was introduced to it years ago by Arley Howard, who fought for its removal and received noncommittal responses from the Walsh adminstration, arguing that the statue would need to be moved elsewhere and preserved. This is an abhorant and false attempt at displaying equity, a man still half naked and bound in chains on display in our city. It should have been gone yesterday.

This has to go!

SLAVERY and the ending of slavery most go! Symbols of slavery keeps white supremacy alive. So PLEASE REMOVE THIS STATUE

We need to do better and start listening to what black people are saying. Take this statue down.

I've lived in the Boston area (well worked in Boston, lived further out where I can afford to live) for the past 10 years. About 3 years ago, I was walking with my 8 year old goddaughter when she made an audible gasp and pointed at statue of Abraham Lincoln "freeing" the slaves. While Lincoln is standing tall and dignified, the slave is kneeling at his feet, and is depicted in a very subservient position.  When my best friend and I brought her daughter (my goddaughter) to the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture (MAAHC) last October, my goddaughter made the same gasping sounds as we walked through the bottom most level of the museum. That is the level educating museum visitors about the transatlantic slave trade.  While saddened, I was not bothered by her gasp in the MAAHC. Though it was difficult to digest, the imagery in the MAAHC was created for us by us; and was an honest portrayal of the experiences of our people.  On the other hand, that statue of Lincoln near Park Plaza perpetuates many myths including: #1 that slaves were docile and weak (when we know they were anything but), #2 that Lincoln, the reluctant great emancipator, who was at best a recovering racist, was only one human in a long line of humans (including generations of slaves) that secured our "freedom" and #3 that we are indeed free. 

Also- Lincoln was no golden savior