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Remove The Emancipation Memorial/Freedman Statue

2,701 Comments

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Linda Cavallero
6 years ago

no child should have to try to make sense of this symbolism

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Deborah Friedman
6 years ago

This statue can’t stay! . Please replace it with another statue or art installation that reflects the values with which our city wants to lead.

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Jonathon Nix
6 years ago

For several years I worked in Boston's financial district, and one day a week, during my lunchtime, I volunteered at a charter school in Park Square, reading to a young Black student. I've always felt conflicted about white volunteerism that has patronizing overtones. When I would leave the school I would often see the Lincoln and freed slave statue and I was filled with disgust at the patronizing Lincoln and the groveling, anonymous Black man. This also caused me to doubt that I was helping my young student, and to wonder what he felt about being forced to sit during HIS lunch hour while a white man read to him. Tory, I'm glad to sign your petition, I think it's long overdue.

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Raheem Harvey
6 years ago

It needs to go!

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Chokdee Rutirasiri
6 years ago

We need to have monuments that celebrate and empower an inclusive vision for our humanity. This one does not.

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Dave Connolly
6 years ago

Nearly identical statue is in DC's Lincoln Park. There's probably many more. Upgrade them all!

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Sharron J Sawyer
6 years ago

Thanks for bringing this to the public's attention Tory! Wow! I had no idea this existed in Boston. Absolutely unacceptable! Take it down!

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Marty Gardner
6 years ago

The time has passed for subservient black people to reinforced in public monuments. Agree that this should be removed.

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Lorena Smith
6 years ago

Take it Down Now!

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Danny Boyo
6 years ago

Already commented on Tory's page. Here, here Tory Bullock - from a lifelong Boston Irish-America. I stand with you and yours and like-thinking people around the World.

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Mary Burchenal
6 years ago

I don't know how anyone can look at that statue and not cringe. Way past time for it to go!

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Adrienne Paquin
6 years ago

As a Boston native, this is horrifying. It should be removed.

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Tracy Fernandez
6 years ago

Remove the emancipation memorial statue. In no way shape or form does the statue represent freedom of any kind. It literally looks like slavery.

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James Iffland
6 years ago

Tory has a point. We can honor Lincoln (and he should be honored) but with a different kind of monument.

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Jacqueline Perkins
6 years ago

100% agree with Tory Bullock. Done with the double standards and hypocritical, fallacious logic.

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Heidi Burbidge
6 years ago

Melt it down. Ask Tory what to do with it.

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Heather
6 years ago

Wow I lived in Boston for 24 years and never knew this existed. Absolutely disgusting.

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Sushane Sharma
6 years ago

This is a pathetic symbol of freedom. This statue must be taken down.

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Philip McArthur
6 years ago

What if a new memorial were to show Lincoln taking a knee before a Black man and woman standing proudly next to him, free of their chains? Lincoln acknowledging the sin that white people had committed for centuries, not just asking forgiveness, but offering restitution for the wealth that was built on their backs. As a white person who greatly respects what President Lincoln accomplished, let’s not forget that he did not see black people and white people as equals and believed they should be separated. While Lincoln emancipated black people from the horror of slavery, this image of a black man kneeling beneath a white man is indicative of that perceived inequality, and reinforces the conscious and unconscious bias that we all need to struggle against. If we want to truly celebrate what Lincoln did, while also acknowledging his limits in regard to racial equality, let’s do so in a way that no longer shows a Black person subjugating themselves to a White person, but that acknowledges the restitution that is truly owed.

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Walter Siegal
6 years ago

Why make a statue that is supposed to represent freedom when there is still a black man on his knees ?