Protesters topple Confederate statue in Washington
June 20, 2020
Protesters have pulled down a statue of a Confederate general in the US capital following nationwide rallies marking the end of slavery . The toppling comes just ahead of a controversial rally by President Donald Trump.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
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Protesters toppled and set ablaze a statue of a Confederate general in Washington, D.C. on Friday, following nationwide rallies to mark Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
Demonstrators pulled the figure of Albert Pike down by rope, doused it with lighter fuel and set fire to it, before dozens began chanting "Black lives matter." Between 80 and 100 people gathered around the statue at 11 p.m. (3am UTC), and the statue fell around 11:15 p.m., according to Fox 5 News.
The statue had been a point of contention for yearsImage: Reuters/J. Ernst
They then stood around in a circle as the statue burned, chanting "No justice, no peace" and "No racist police!"
US President Donald Trump tweeted shortly after to call the toppling a "disgrace."
"The D.C. police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!"
Demonstrators had earlier gathered in Washington outside the Lincoln Memorial and near the White House.
The nearly 11-foot (3.4 meter) Albert Pike statue has been a point of contention in Washington, with opponents having vied for its removal for years. A bill to remove the statue was introduced in October 2017 but later stalled. It was again reintroduced last summer.
Nationwide protests
Juneteenth demonstrations were also held in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, following weeks of protests over police brutality and systemic racism.
Several monuments depicting Confederate figures have been toppled in recent weeks. Also on Friday, protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina pulled down two Confederate statues; one was hung from a lamppost while the other was dragged down the street and placed in front of a courthouse.
On Thursday night, protesters in Portland, Oregon pulled down a statue of George Washington. Last week, people in Richmond, Virginia toppled another Confederate statue as well as the figure of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.
Protests were held across the US to mark JuneteenthImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Harnik
Connection with Tulsa Trump rally
Friday's toppling comes just ahead of Trump's controversial rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma — originally scheduled for Friday, but pushed back to Saturday following a widespread outcry over his choice of both date and location.
Tulsa's Greenwood district was the site of one of the US's worst racist massacres in 1921, which saw as many as 300 Black Americans killed in violent clashes with white mobs and over 800 admitted to hospitals. The neighborhood was formerly known as Black Wall Street, and was, at the time, the wealthiest Black community in the US.
"We just want the world to know what happened here," Greenwood store owner Tony Williams told the Agence France-Presse news agency, also calling Trump's rally "disrespectful."
The rally is set to be Trump's first since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and dozens of Trump followers have camped out for several nights ahead of the rally in order to get the best seats. His rallies typically garner thousands of attendees.
Juneteenth marks the day — June 19, 1865 — when a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas and informed slaves that they were free, two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order granting freedom to slaves in the Confederate States.
Toppled monuments: A selection of controversial figures
Global anti-racism protests following the killing of George Floyd fuel the controversy over the interpretation of the colonial and Confederate eras. In Europe and the US, monuments are damaged, razed and removed.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/G. Spadafora
Edward Colston: slave trader and philanthropist
Controversy over the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was rife for years. On June 7, demonstrators removed the bronze from its pedestal and tossed it into the water. While Colston was working for the Royal African Society, an estimated 84,000 Africans were transported for enslavement; 19,000 of them died along the way. But he went down in history as a benefactor for his donations to charities.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/G. Spadafora
Robert Baden-Powell: initiator of the Boy Scouts
Activists accuse Robert Baden-Powell, the man who initiated the Boy Scout movement, of racism, homophobia and admiration for Adolf Hitler. His statue stood on Brownsea Island in southern England. Amid the current wave of monuments being toppled by protesters, local authorities have now removed Baden-Powell's statue as a precaution.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Matthews
Leopold II: Belgian colonial-era monarch
Belgium has quite a few statues of King Leopold II. The monarch ruled the country from 1865 to 1909 and established a brutal colonial regime in Congo that is in fact considered one of the most violent in history. Protesters smeared several statues of Leopold II with paint. Authorities removed the above statue from its pedestal in the Antwerp suburb of Ekeren and sent it to a museum depot.
Image: Reuters/ATV
Christopher Columbus: revered and scorned
In the US, too, disputes have flared over monuments dedicated to controversial historical figures. Among others, protesters have targeted Christopher Columbus. A statue in Boston was beheaded (photo). North American indigenous groups reject the worship of Columbus because his expeditions enabled the colonization of the continent and the genocide of its autochthonous population in the first place.
Image: Reuters/B. Snyder
Columbus in Latin America: a different point of view
Some people see Columbus as one of the most important figures in world history, but for many people in Latin America the explorer's name stands for the beginning of a painful era. From the perspective of the indigenous population, Spanish colonialism is a dark chapter in their history. In Latin America, too, statues of Columbus have been destroyed or damaged in the past.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Boensch
Jefferson Davis: Civil War president
Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America, one of the leaders in the country's mid 19th-century Civil War. Protesters toppled and spray-painted the Confederate president's statue in Richmond, Virginia. House speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the removal of Confederate statues from the US Capitol because they were monuments to men "who advocated cruelty and barbarism."
Image: Getty Images/C. Somodevilla
Robert E. Lee: a divisive figure
Another Confederate statue in Richmond, this one a monument to General Robert E. Lee, is to be removed in the next few days. Governor Ralph Northam has given orders to take down the monument. Many African Americans regards the statues of Confederate politicians and soldiers as symbols of oppression and slavery.
