History
The Iconoclasts Have It All Wrong. The Emancipation Memorial Shows A Man ‘In The Act Of Getting Up’ For ‘His Freedom’
Under fire from ignorant iconoclasts, the Emancipation Memorial shows a former slave 'exerting his own strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him.'
Michael Giorgino
By Michael Giorgino
June 25, 2020
Black Lives Matter Protesters have threatened to tear down the Emancipation Memorial in Washington. District of Columbia Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton also called for the “problematic†statue’s removal from Lincoln Park, alleging the statue fails to note how enslaved African Americans pushed for their emancipation. Norton said former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass “expressed his displeasure†at its unveiling.
In truth, Frederick Douglass predicted members of his race looking back at its dedication in the distant future “will think of it and speak of it with a sense of manly pride.†On April 14, 1876, the 11th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination, Douglass delivered the keynote address at the unveiling of this memorial. President Grant, senators, cabinet members, and Supreme Court justices attended the ceremony. Douglass proclaimed:
We have done a good work for our race today. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator, we have been doing highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us; we have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal … When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
more
https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/25/the-iconoclasts-have-it-all-wrong-the-emancipation-memorial-shows-a-man-in-the-act-of-getting-up-for-his-freedom/
