University of Wisconsin students call for removal of Abraham Lincoln statue on Madison campus
By Kelly Meyerhofer, The Wisconsin State Journal
Associated Press |
Jun 30, 2020 at 2:48 PM
MADISON, WIS. — Some University of Wisconsin-Madison students of color want the university to remove one of its most iconic landmarks, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, because of what they see as the former president’s anti-Indigenous and anti-Black history despite Lincoln’s legacy of ending slavery in the U.S.
Two student organizations, the Black Student Union and the Student Inclusion Coalition, pushed for the statue’s removal in early June, days after George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody and protests erupted nationally over racial injustice.
The students’ efforts gained newfound attention after protesters tore down two other statues at the state Capitol earlier this week — one of Civil War abolitionist Hans Christian Heg and another of a female figure that represents the state’s “Forward†motto.
The toppling of those statues divided the famously liberal city, with activists arguing the action calls attention to inequities long ignored by white liberals and others denouncing the destruction of what they see as symbols having little to do with the Black Lives Matter movement.
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