Free Republic

When Barbara Johns was just 16 years old, she led a walkout at her high school to protest poor and unequal school conditions. The moment is one that many historians believe helped launch the desegregation movement in the US. Now, Johns -- who died in 1991 -- will be memorialized at the US Capitol, replacing Virginia's statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

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George Washington, Ben Franklin among 'persons of concern' cited by mayor's working group A committee created by Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser (D.) is recommending the city "rename, remove, or contextualize" buildings and other city assets—including the Washington Monument—whose namesakes have been deemed problematic. Bowser formed the District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions Working Group, or D.C. FACES, in July to review the city’s stock of 1,330 named assets and address 153 assets named after "persons of concern." The committee submitted their final report to the mayor on Monday. Public schools named after Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, and...

A 115-year-old Confederate monument that was the subject of protests in Alabama this year was removed from outside a county courthouse early Friday. News outlets reported that a small group of onlookers cheered at the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville as crews took away the stone memorial, which was topped by the likeness of a soldier, in pieces. Music blasted during part of the work. “I’m speechless, literally speechless. It’s an amazing time for our culture and for people of all colors. I’m excited that I’m able to watch this event happen during this time,” said Joretha Wright. […] Madison...

The University of Rhode Island recently announced plans to remove two murals depicting the events of World War II due to their lack of diversity. The decision was prompted after students complained that the mural was not compatible with the university’s values of inclusivity. According to the school’s Vice President of Student Affairs, “Some of our students have even shared with us they didn’t feel comfortable sitting in that space.”

— A Virginia city has officially renamed the cemetery where Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson is buried. The city council in Lexington voted unanimously Thursday to adopt a law changing the name of Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery to Oak Grove Cemetery, news outlets reported. The Civil War general, who owned slaves and fought to defend the practice, was buried in the cemetery more than 150 years ago. Officials faced calls from community members in June to change the name and remove all other monuments and places honoring Confederate figures within city limits, as communities around the world faced similar demands to...

Overnight protesters in Portland, Oregon decided to set fire to the city’s famous downtown Elk statue. The sculpture was donated to the city by Mayor David Thompson in 1900 and was created by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The fountain and sculpture are officially designated as Portland Historic Landmarks by the city’s own Landmark Comission. The installation is formally known as the David P. Thompson Fountain

WTNH reports Police have arrested a man Thursday in connection to the beheading of the Waterbury Christopher Columbus statue outside City Hall on July 4. Brandon Ambrose, 22, of New York, turned himself in to the Waterbury Police on Thursday morning. He was arrested and charged with criminal mischief, desecration of property and larceny.

A Virgin Mary statue was set ablaze outside a Boston church Saturday night, said police who are investigating the arson incident. Officers at 10 p.m. responded to a call for a fire in the area of 284 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester. On arrival at Saint Peter’s Parish, officers saw that a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had been set on fire. A suspect had lit plastic flowers on fire, which were in the hands of the Virgin Mary statue, according to members of the Boston Fire Department Fire Investigation Unit. That caused the statue’s face and upper body to...

Across America, protesters and city leaders are removing monuments of Confederate soldiers. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is home to more than 40 Confederate monuments. The park is roughly 6,000 acres, attracting nearly a million visitors each year. Are the Confederate monuments educational or do they glorify slavery? It depends on who you ask.

The faculty of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, voted on Monday to remove the name of Robert E. Lee from the university’s name. During a faculty meeting on Monday, 79 percent of faculty voted in favor of a change to the university’s name. According to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the faculty at Washington & Lee University voted on Monday to remove “Lee” from the university’s name. Zoila Ponce de Leon, an assistant professor at the university, argued that the name change would be a small step towards making students from “diverse backgrounds” more “comfortable” on campus....

A crowd of shouting protesters yanked down the Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy, dragged it to the edge of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and rolled it with a splash into the water as fireworks went off around the city on the night of the Fourth of July. Dedicated in 1984, the statue is the latest monument in the U.S. to fall this year during the national reckoning over racism and police violence that also has toppled statues of Confederate figures and enslavers around the country.....

THE SEATTLE COMMUNE is no more. Declared three weeks ago by radical leftists as CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, rechristened CHOP, the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest, the six-block enclave inside Seattle ceased to exist July 1. The cops shut it down. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce. If the Paris Commune of 1871 is the archetype, that mass uprising and swift slaughter of the communards who rose against the regime, what happened in Seattle is the farce. Police Chief Carmen Best, who opposed Mayor Jenny Durkan’s surrender of one of her precinct stations...

Protesters tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it the Inner Harbor Saturday in Baltimore. A witness said a group pulled the statue down during protests and pulled it into the harbor.

Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial, a nine-story-high bas-relief sculpture carved into a sprawling rock face northeast of Atlanta, is perhaps the South's most audacious monument to its pro-slavery legacy still intact. Despite long-standing demands for the removal of what many consider a shrine to racism, the giant depiction of three Confederate heroes on horseback still towers ominously over the Georgia countryside, protected by state law. The monument - which reopens on Independence Day weekend after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to close for weeks - has faced renewed calls for removal since the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a Black...

The Civil War monument erected in 1909 outside Colorado’s Capitol that commemorated, in part, the Sand Creek Massacre was toppled overnight, the latest act by protesters across the nation to tear down statues honoring perpetrators of racist acts. Trooper Gary Cutler, spokesman for Colorado State Patrol, which polices the Capitol grounds, said “individuals” brought the statue down around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. He wouldn’t say how many were involved or whether their identities are known. The case has been turned over to the Denver Police Department. “It was up yesterday and it was down today,” said Doug Platt, communications manager at...

President Trump said he has authorized federal law enforcement to arrest those caught vandalizing memorials and charge them under the Veterans' Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act. "I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent," the president tweeted Tuesday morning.

“Yes,” Mr. King said regarding his support for tearing down images of Christ. “All murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends should also come down. They are a gross form [of] white supremacy. Created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down.” The activist doubled down on the matter in response to feedback.

It looks like the DC Metro and Park Police are taking a stand to drive back 'protestors' from destroying the Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Park. This is clear provocation. They're testing the limits of how close they can get to the White House. 4 min clip: Reporters are told to leave the White House amid reports protesters attempted to remove an Andrew Jackson statue nearby.

TALLADEGA, Alabama — It has been a little more than a week since NASCAR instituted a ban on Confederate flags at its facilities. That has led to at least one person publicly expressing their frustration before the now-postponed GEICO 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway. High above the track an hour prior to the scheduled start of the race was a plane with the Confederate flag and an accompanying message, “Defund NASCAR.” https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1274802026270961665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1274802026270961665&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fsports%2F2020%2F06%2F21%2Fplane-with-defund-nascar-confederate-flag-banner-flies-above-talladega-superspeedway%2F Last week, the series made the announcement after the sanctioning body’s top series only black driver, Bubba Wallace, voiced his support for a possible ban. Reminders were posted...