Tear them down! Protesters targeting 60 ‘racist’ statues
BLACK Lives Matter protesters have drawn up a list of 60 statues they want removed for “celebrating slavery and racism”.
Councils and museums across the UK are removing controversial monuments after the statue of the 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was torn down and dumped in Bristol harbour on Sunday.
Wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill’s statue was also defaced, as mass demonstrations took place in Westminster’s Parliament Square.
Meanwhile, around 1,000 protesters gathered in Oxford last night to call for the statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College to be pulled down.
BBC newsman John Simpson was among the protesters as they chanted “take it down”.
Crowds also sat in silence and “took the knee” in tribute to George Floyd, the black American whose death last month while being restrained by a white police officer sparked worldwide demonstrations.
Colonialism
Speakers included protest organiser Ndjodi Ndeunyema. He said: “We demand an official and public acknowledgement of the colonial violence on which Oriel is built. We demand the immediate removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes.”
An online petition with 10,000 signatures has urged Oriel to remove the statue, arguing it represents colonialism and racism.
Rhodes played a dominant role in southern Africa, serving as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and founding the De Beers diamond firm.
Hours before the protest began Oxford City Council’s leader Susan Brown wrote to the college, inviting them to apply for planning permission to remove the statue, after 26 councillors signed a letter saying it is “incompatible” with the city’s “commitment to anti-racism”.
She suggested the statue should be placed in the Ashmolean or the Museum of Oxford. Oriel College said that it “abhors racism and discrimination in all its forms”. “As a college, we continue to debate and discuss the issues raised by the presence on our site of examples of contested heritage relating to Cecil Rhodes,” it added. Yesterday the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced a commission to examine the future of landmarks around the capital, including murals,
street art, street names and statues. The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will review the city’s landmarks and consider which legacies should be celebrated before making recommendations.
The list includes a statue of slavetrading West India Docks founder Robert Milligan which was removed yesterday.
In Edinburgh there have been calls to remove a statue of former Home Secretary Henry Dundas, who delayed the abolition of slavery, and a statue of his son Robert. In Leeds a statue of Queen Victoria, who expanded the British Empire in her 63-year reign, was defaced.
In Manchester, protesters are calling for a statue of Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police, to be taken down, due to his father’s links to the slave trade.
Plymouth City Council announced plans to rename a public square which pays tribute to the 16th century slave trader Sir John Hawkins, but said it will not remove the statue of explorer Sir Francis Drake, who was also involved in the slave trade.