House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding for the removal of 11 statues from the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection which “is comprised of statues donated by states to honor persons notable in their history,” according to their website.
What We Know:
- In a letter to the Joint Committee on the Library, who oversees the National Statuary, Pelosi asked Chair Roy Blunt and Chair Zoe Lefgren that the statues representing Confederate soldiers and officials be removed from display in the U.S. Capitol.
- “The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation,” Pelosi wrote. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals.”
- Pelosi’s request to remove the statues, differs from President Trump, who opposed the Pentagon’s efforts to remove Confederate commanders’ names from military bases. Earlier this week, the White House said the president would refuse to sign the annual defense authorization bill if Congress tried to push his hand, according to the New York Times.
- “The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations,” Trump tweeted.
- Since the death of George Floyd and the undeniable racism that still exists in the U.S., protesters have taken matters into their own hands. A crowd of protesters in Richmond, VA took down the statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, days after bringing down a statue of Christopher Columbus. Some have been taken down by city leaders in Birmingham and Mobile, Ala.; Louisville, Ky.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Alexandria, Va., among other places.
“These names have to go from these bases and these statues have to go from the Capitol,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. She went on to say that legislation or committee action may be imposed.
