Roosevelt statue, viewed as a symbol of racism, is coming down. And Trump’s not happy.
Note: This story has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to Brady Carlson, who quoted Theodore Roosevelt’s great grandson in a tweet.
A statue of Theodore Roosevelt at the entrance to a New York City museum is coming down, but it’s not because of social justice protesters.
The massive bronze statue of the 26th president of the United States, erected in 1940, has long been a source of embarrassment for the American Museum of Natural History for its depiction of Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American walking on one side and a Black man on the other.
The New York Times reports the decision to remove it came from the museum and the city agrees.
Even an exhibit inside the museum has mocked the racial implications of the statue.
“The statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing,” the museum said in a release.
President Donald Trump called the idea “ridiculous” in a message posted on Twitter.
“The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office told CNN. “The city supports the museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 7:16 PM.
