Bust of Black hero of Lewis & Clark trip goes up in Portland
Last year, protesters against racial injustice toppled numerous statues around the country. Now, one of the first works of art to emerge in their place depicts an unsung hero of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
A huge bust of York, a Black man who was enslaved by William Clark and who was the first African-American to cross the continent and reach the Pacific Ocean, is sitting atop a pedestal amid a lushly forested park in Portland, Oregon. It was placed there in the dead of night last weekend by persons unknown.
People have flocked to the bust, which seems to be at least four feet tall, in Mount Tabor Park. The artist’s depiction of York shows him seemingly deep in thought or even sad, his eyes cast downward. York hadn’t been painted contemporaneously so how his face really looked is unknown.
O cials in the city, which has been an epicenter of Black Lives Matter protests since the killing of George Floyd, love what the head of the parks department called “guerrilla art.”
“This past summer, there’s been concern about some of the public art that many states have displayed, and so folks really see this installation as a bit of a reckoning,” Portland Parks and Recreation Director Adena Long said in an interview. “The story of York is really compelling and very sad.”
Passersby stare up at the bust or touch the tall stone pedestal. The anonymous artist affixed a plaque describing how York was an integral part of the 18041806 expedition to find an all-water route to the Pacific, but then was denied his freedom by Clark after it was over.
Since the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis last May, hundreds of symbols of racism and other dark chapters of U.S. history have been removed. Among them were at least 167 Confederate symbols,
according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Pedestals that used to support statues that were torn down by Black Lives Matter protesters or removed by o cials now are empty. One, in Virginia, held a monument to Jefferson Davis; others held memorials to Confederate soldiers in Florida, North Carolina, and Alabama; another bore a statue of Robert E. Lee, in Alabama.
Simply renaming places has been easier. At least 14 schools — mostly in the south — were renamed last year. For example, Robert E. Lee High School, in Springfield, Virginia, became John R. Lewis High School, named for the late civil rights leader and congressman from Georgia.
“John R. Lewis, by his lifetime of service, strength, conviction and dedication to improving the lives of others, is memorialized as an enduring symbol through
his namesake high school,” the school district says.
Deciding what to replace downed statues with, commissioning the artists and having the work done takes time.
Whoever made the gigantic head of York circumvented all that by producing the bust — o cials believe it might have been done with a 3D printer — getting it into the park without being detected and then placing it on top of the pedestal, which itself is around 10 feet (3 meters) high).
It’s likely the artist had collaborators to install it. On Friday night, as is customary, park rangers shut gates on the roads and locked them at 10 p.m. closing time. On Saturday morning, a maintenance worker saw the York bust, perched on a pedestal where a statue of a conservative figure who opposed women’s right to vote had stood until someone knocked it over last year.
“None of those gates had been damaged. None of those locks had been damaged. And so we do feel that this was brought in on foot,” said Tim Collier, community relations manager for the city parks department.
They had to transport the bust, which seems to be composed of plastic or composite of synthetic material, at least 1,000 feet (300 meters) uphill from the nearest road access.
The mysterious appearance of the bust has prompted many to look up York’s story.
In the epic expedition, York had gone on scouting missions, had hunted bu alo and deer to feed the group and helped tend to the sick.
Historian Stephen Ambrose, in his book “Undaunted Courage” about the expedition, described York as “strong, agile, a natural athlete.” Native Americans were fascinated by the first Black person they had ever seen.
“They did not look upon him as a slave or as a mere man, but as an extraordinary person more interesting and elevated than any of his companions,” the National Park Service says in a brief biography.
After the expedition was over, everyone but York was rewarded with money and land. York, whose wife was also a slave and lived in another town, demanded freedom as a reward for his services on the expedition, Ambrose wrote. But Clark refused and even gave him “a Severe trouncing” for being insolent.
Clark later claimed to a friend that he’d freed York. Historians haven’t been able to verify that.
Collier said that in the legends of the expedition, York’s role has been overlooked, and that the bust “is really furthering that conversation here in our very, very white city.”
Long hopes the artist comes forward to possibly have a conversation about making York a permanent art installation.
LAS VEGAS ( AP) — Class action lawsuits were filed in Nevada against 10 major auto insurance companies on Tuesday, contending that the companies charged excessive insurance premiums during the pandemic by failing to account for a drop in driving and crashes.
The lawsuits acknowledge that some insurers provided discounts over the emptier roads and drop in accidents and claims, but the discounts did not offer “any meaningful relief that actually reflects the reduction in cars on the road and reduced driving during the pandemic,” according to the court filings. The rates that were charged violate state law against excessive premiums, the lawsuits contend.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Nevada insurance customers against State Farm, USAA, Geico, Acuity, Liberty Mutual, Farmers, Progressive, Travelers, Nationwide and Allstate.
“The filing of a lawsuit does not substantiate the allegations within the complaint,” State Farm, the country’s largest auto insurer, said in a statement. “We’ve recently learned about the filing, and it is premature to comment at this time.”
USAA was reviewing the lawsuit, according to spokesman Matt Hartwig. “However, I do think it’s important to note that on three occasions in 2020, USAA returned dividends totaling $1.07 billion to all auto insurance policy holders due to fewer drivers on the road because of the ongoing pandemic,” he said.
“Nationwide is taking the longer view while continuing to monitor consumer driving behaviors and how they impact future miles driven and accident frequencies. We know customers want fair rates and agents are seeking stability,” the insurer said in a statement Wednesday.
The company said it is “building additional benefits of the slowdown into future rates, on a state-by-state basis” and is taking lower miles driven or accident claims into account in rates for renewing policies. The company said some of that is being “offset by higher repair costs driven by more high-speed crashes and higher auto repair shop costs.”
Liberty Mutual declined to comment.
Phone and email messages seeking comment from the other insurers were not returned.
States across the country began reporting a decline in traffic and crashes when COVID- 19- related closures and stay-at-home orders were imposed starting last spring. Companies that sell the majority of the policies across the U.S. announced refunds or credits to drivers.
The discounts provided by insurers to reflect pandemic driving conditions varied, from $50 to $100 one-time refund from Acuity, a 25% reduction in bills from March 20 to May 31 from State Farm, to a 15% credit from Geico only when renewing a policy between April 8 and October 7, according to the lawsuits.
“I believe that the rates should have been cut something in the order of 50-60%,” said Robert Eglet, lead counsel for the law firm Eglet Adams, which filed the lawsuits. “These discounts that were given, were just totally woefully inadequate.”
His comments are similar to those made by the Consumer Federation of America in September, which said that the relief provided by insurers was not enough and said state insurance commissioners who regulate the industry had failed “to prevent windfall auto insurer profits as auto claims dropped when driving and auto crashes declined.”
In Nevada, after the governor ordered the closure of nonessential businesses, the Nevada-California border, which sees traffic backups when tourists pour into
Las Vegas for weekend trips and other getaways, had 66% less traffic in April 2020 than in the same month in 2019, according to the lawsuits, along with a 60% drop in automobile accidents in southern Nevada in March 2020 when compared to the previous year.
Eglet, whose firm represented several thousand victims of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting in a lawsuit against MGM Resorts and the state of Nevada and a wide- ranging lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and sellers, said it was premature to estimate the total dollar amount of the claims across the
lawsuit but said it was “well into the millions.”
Nevada Division of Insurance declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Eglet said he was not aware of other class action lawsuits filed in other states making similar arguments but predicted more may follow because of other drops in driving patterns and rates of premium relief across the states.
Lawsuits were filed last summer in Illinois contending six auto insurers failed to offer big enough relief on premiums, according to the Chicago Tribune.