A long-standing controversial monument is descending to Vice President John C. Calhoun in Charleston, South Carolina.
Mayor John Tecklenburg said on Wednesday that the 124-year-old statue will be removed from its prominent position in the city center and relocated due to the ongoing civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd by the police.
The promise to hand over the monument to the statesman who was the slave champion also came on the fifth anniversary of white Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church.
Sculpture “Comemorat[es] “A man who could rightly be called South Carolina’s foremost national statesman, but could also be called the ultimate defender of slavery and white supremacy.” at a news conference.
“We Charlestonians should think that Mr. Calhoun is a rising and deeply disturbing legacy,” he added.
“But we must let this monument continue to divide our city, but the reckoning is not given,” he said.
The mayor said the statue plans to move to a local museum or academic institution. The City Council plans to make a decision to officially lift and move the monument next week. Everyone except the two Council members was with Tecklenburg to be dismissed on Wednesday.
The Calhoun memorial would join many people in the country and the world that were officially lifted or overturned by protesters who demanded justice for Floyd and demanded the handling of systemic racism.
The monument has been a flash point among those living in the city for years. it was quickly destroyed After the announcement by the protesters that the city will be lifted on Wednesday, Charleston’s Mission and Courier reported.
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