Posted on June 30, 2020

Univ. Of Wisconsin Students Want Lincoln Statue Removed: Sure, He Was ‘Anti-Slavery,’ but He Wasn’t ‘Pro-Black’

Phil Shiver, The Blaze, June 29, 2020

A student group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is calling for the school to remove its popular Abraham Lincoln statue, saying the president who is known as the “Great Emancipator” is a symbol of racism.

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“He was also very publicly anti-Black,” Nalah McWhorter, the president of UW-Madison’s black student union, said. “Just because he was anti-slavery doesn’t mean he was pro-black.”

“He said a lot in his presidential campaigns. His fourth presidential campaign speech, he said that he believes there should be an inferior and superior, and he believes white people should be the superior race,” she added.

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“Like those of all presidents, Lincoln’s legacy is complex and contains actions which, 150 years later, appear flawed,” Chancellor Becky Blank said in response to the calls for the statue’s removal.

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Blank acknowledged that while the school has a lot of work to do “to address systemic racism and oppression,” she doesn’t support removing the statue. She argued that Lincoln’s legacy should be both celebrated and critiqued.

That response didn’t sit well with McWhorter, who argued that the school is siding with a “breathless, lifeless statue” over their black students.

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