A number of statues and memorials have been the subject of protests and petitions during the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom in 2020.
A number of statues and memorials have been the subject of protests and petitions during the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom in 2020.
For several years a campaign entitled Rhodes Must Fall had worked towards the removal of statues to Cecil Rhodes. A list of 60 statues, monuments and plaques considered by activists to "celebrate slavery and racism" was published online as an interactive map titled Topple the Racists by the Stop Trump Coalition. In addition to Rhodes, historical figures listed included Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, Oliver Cromwell, King Charles II, Admiral Lord Nelson, the prime ministers Earl Grey and William Ewart Gladstone. [1] [2]
The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, had graffiti sprayed on it over two successive days, including the phrase "Churchill was a racist", [3] [4] [5] alluding to his controversial racial views. [6] The memorial to Queen Victoria in Leeds was also vandalised. [7] On 5 June, a group of protesters sprayed the abbreviation "ACAB", meaning All Cops Are Bastards, on the memorial to Earl Haig in Whitehall, London; when soldiers from the Household Cavalry in plain clothes scrubbed the graffiti off, protesters shouted abuse at them for doing so. [8]
The statue of Edward Colston in The Centre, Bristol, was toppled and thrown into Bristol Harbour on 7 June. [9] [10] On the same day, a protester climbed onto the Cenotaph in London and unsuccessfully attempted to set fire to the Union Flag. [11]
A sculpted head of a black man was removed from the 18th-century inn sign of the Green Man in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. The act was performed by residents of the town, who said that they had done so in order to protect it from vandalism. The sculpture was later returned to the local council, its legal owner. [12]
In Oxford, a crowd of protesters gathered outside Oriel College, demanding that its statue of Cecil Rhodes be removed. [13]
On 9 June the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced the formation of the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, which would conduct a review of the capital's public landmarks. [14] The Labour politician Lord Adonis asked the Government to begin a public consultation on the statue of Robert Clive outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. [15] That evening the statue of Robert Milligan, a merchant and slave trader, outside the Museum of London Docklands was removed by the local authority and the Canal & River Trust. [16]
On 11 June the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity and King's College London issued a joint statement announcing that the statue of Robert Clayton at St Thomas' Hospital and that of Thomas Guy at the hospital named after him would be removed from public view. [17]
A statue of an exoticised black man in a kneeling position was removed from the forecourt of Dunham Massey Hall near Altrincham in Greater Manchester. [18]
A statue of Robert Baden-Powell in Poole, Dorset, was slated for temporary removal after criticism over events during his army career and his comments of support concerning Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf , [19] [20] but initial attempts to remove it faced technical difficulties and local people later prevented council workers from removing it. [21]
The Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy raised concerns about the Empire murals (1914–1921) by Sigismund Goetze in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a letter to the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab. [22]
Following the toppling of the statue of Ras Makonnen, a functionary of the Ethiopian Empire, in Harar, Ethiopia, a bust of his son Haile Selassie was toppled in Cannizaro Park, Wimbledon, South West London. Demonstrations had spread across Ethiopia following the murder of Oromo singer and activist Hachalu Hundessa on 29 June 2020. The bust in London was destroyed by Oromo activists. [23]
The statue of Robert Clive in Shrewsbury was the subject of two petitions in favour of its removal and one against; the first two combined received a greater number of signatures than the third. Shropshire Council voted 28–17 against taking any action to remove the statue. [24]
There were protests against the Melville Monument in Edinburgh due to the disputed belief that Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, whom it commemorates, led to a delay in the abolition of slavery, and due to his long association with the slave trade. Graffiti was sprayed onto the monument and calls were made for it to be taken down. [25] [26]
In a number of streets in Glasgow, activists placed new name placards under the names of streets named after individuals with connections to the slave trade. Among these is Buchanan Street, named after Andrew Buchanan, who owned plantations in Virginia, which was renamed to George Floyd Street. [27]
A statue of Robert the Bruce located at the Bannockburn Visitor Centre was defaced with graffiti on 12 June. [28] [29]
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council announced "an urgent review of all local authority-owned sites and buildings in the county borough to determine what statues, busts, plaques and memorials are present at these locations. If it is the case that any of these may be deemed inappropriate then we will be requesting officers to ensure that they are removed from those particular locations". [30]
A statue of Thomas Picton is part of a display of statues named "Heroes of Wales" in Cardiff's City Hall, unveiled in 1916. In June 2020 the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Dan De'Ath, and the leader of Cardiff Council, Huw Thomas, supported calls to remove the statue due to Picton's treatment of slaves. [31] A campaign to remove Picton's monument in Carmarthen also arose. [32]
A plaque in Brecon dedicated to Thomas Phillips, the captain of the slave ship Hannibal , was removed by an unknown person. Brecon town council said in a statement that it would "...in consultation with the local community and interested parties will take time to consider what, if anything, should take its place". The plaque had been "under review" by the council before its disappearance but no decision had been made on its future. [33]
On 10 June 2020 a statue of Sir George Carteret, a 17th century bailiff, lieutenant governor of Jersey and first lord proprietor of the British colony of New Jersey, was defaced with white paint ostensibly having to do with his role as a trader of slaves for the Royal African Company: "the single most prolific trader of slaves." [34]
The statue had only just been erected the statue in Saint Peter's Square in 2014 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the founding of New Jersey. [34] Thirty-six thousand pounds of public funds were used after a plea for public funds was made by former constable John Refault. [35] [36]
While many calls were made to put the statue in a museum. St. Peter constable Richard Vibert committed only to discussing the possibility of place a plaque next to the statue explaining Carteret's connections with the slave trade. [37]
In August 2020 the statue was attacked again by vandals who covered it in red paint (symbolising blood) and chains. [36] [38]
Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton was a Welsh officer of the British Army who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. According to the historian Alessandro Barbero, Picton was "respected for his courage and feared for his irascible temperament". The Duke of Wellington called him "a rough foul-mouthed devil as ever lived", but found him capable.
Vice Admiral Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet was a royalist statesman in Jersey and England, who served in the Clarendon Ministry as Treasurer of the Navy. He was also one of the original lords proprietor of the former British colony of Carolina and New Jersey. Carteret, New Jersey, as well as Carteret County, North Carolina, both in the United States, are named after him. He acquired the manor of Haynes, Bedfordshire, in about 1667.
Edward Colston was an English merchant, philanthropist and Tory Member of Parliament who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade.
The Macdonald Monument is a monument to Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada, by sculptor George Edward Wade (1853-1933), located at Place du Canada in the Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, is a bronze sculpture of the former British prime minister Winston Churchill, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones.
Rhodes Must Fall was a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education across South Africa. On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.
Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials is an ongoing process in the United States since the 1960s. Many municipalities in the United States have removed monuments and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate States of America (CSA), and some, such as Silent Sam in North Carolina, have been torn down by protestors. The momentum to remove Confederate memorials increased dramatically following the high-profile incidents including the Charleston church shooting (2015), the Unite the Right rally (2017), and the killing of George Floyd (2020). The removals have been driven by the belief that the monuments glorify white supremacy, memorialize an unrecognized, treasonous government whose founding principle was the perpetuation of slavery, and that the presence of these Confederate memorials over a hundred years after the subjugation of the Confederacy continues to disenfranchise and alienate African Americans.
The statue of Robert Clayton stands at the entrance to the North Wing of St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London. The sculptor was Grinling Gibbons, and the statue was executed around 1700–1714. Sir Robert was a banker, politician and Lord Mayor of London. As President of St Thomas', he was responsible for the complete rebuilding of the hospital, and associated church in the late 17th century. The statue was designated a Grade I listed structure in 1979.
Richmond, Virginia, experienced a series of protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Richmond was the first city in the Southeastern United States to see rioting over Floyd's death. Richmond, formerly the capital of the short-lived Confederate States of America, saw much arson and vandalism to monuments connected with that polity, particularly along Monument Avenue.
A statue of Charles Linn was previously installed in Birmingham, Alabama's Linn Park, in the United States.
Protests were held across the United Kingdom following the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, by police officers while under arrest in the United States on 25 May 2020. Immediately following his death, protests and riots occurred in dozens of cities across the United States. Protests were staged internationally for the first time on 28 May, with a solidarity demonstration outside the United States Embassy in London. They took place during the UK COVID-19 pandemic.
Shortly after protests seeking justice for George Floyd, an African-American who was killed during a police arrest, began in the United States, people in New Zealand protested to show solidarity with Americans and to demonstrate against perceived issues with police brutality and structural discrimination in New Zealand. Vigils and protests of thousands of participants have taken part nationwide.
The statue of Edward Colston is a bronze statue of Bristol-born merchant Edward Colston (1636–1721), which was originally erected in The Centre in Bristol, England. It was created in 1895 by the Irish sculptor John Cassidy and erected on a plinth of Portland stone. It was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1977.
A statue of Robert Milligan was installed at the West India Docks in London, in 1813. Milligan was a merchant and slave-factor, and was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks. After being put in storage in 1943, it was re-erected by the London Docklands Development Corporation in 1997.
The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm is an initiative established by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on June 9, 2020 to review and access public tributes including statues and other landmarks. The commission was formed in response to the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom which saw protesters topple a Statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, whilst also defacing a number of statues across the country. The commission will focus on increasing diversity in London's street names, monuments, public sculptures and artworks, murals and place names.
The statue of John Cass is lead figure designed by Louis-François Roubiliac of the English merchant and Member of Parliament, John Cass (1661–1718). The original statue of 1751 now stands in the Guildhall in London, and a number of copies stand in various places, including a fibreglass replica at the John Cass Institute in Jewry Street, installed in 1998.
A Surge of Power 2020 is a 2020 black resin sculpture, sculpted by Marc Quinn and modelled on Jen Reid. Both Quinn and Reid are credited as artists. It depicts Reid, a young black female protester, raising her arm in a Black Power salute. It was erected surreptitiously in the city centre of Bristol, England, in the early morning of 15 July 2020. It was placed on the empty plinth from which a 19th-century statue of Edward Colston, who had been involved in the Atlantic slave trade, had been toppled, defaced and pushed into the city's harbour by George Floyd protesters the previous month. The statue was removed by Bristol City Council the day after it was installed.