A statue of Abraham Lincoln was defaced over the weekend at San Francisco’s City Hall, the latest assault on the 16th president, who is also known as the Great Emancipator for his role in leading the Civil War and ultimately abolishing slavery.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
A statue of Abraham Lincoln at San Francisco City Hall was defaced over the weekend, the former president’s face and name covered in shiny red paint.
The incident reflects a growing debate over the legacy of the Civil War president in San Francisco, including a proposal to rename Lincoln High.
The timing also corresponds to the Dec. 26, 1862, anniversary of the hanging of 38 Sioux warriors during the Lincoln administration and the Dakota Uprising.
Earlier this month, it was reported that a city committee had recommended changing the name of Abraham Lincoln High School because of his supposed ill-treatment of Native Americans.
Why is Lincoln in #SanFrancisco 'bloody' today?
It has to do with his role in the largest mass execution in US history. A story that we were not taught in school.
📸: me
Read more:
https://t.co/rt59q6RtQx pic.twitter.com/rNAPY1z54P— Christopher J. Beale (@realchrisjbeale) December 28, 2020
First-grade teacher Jeremiah Jeffries, who sits on the committee, was quoted as saying: “Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that Black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building.”
Earlier this year, a mob of Black Lives Matter “protesters” toppled statutes of American heroes in Golden Gate Park, including that of Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union troops to victory in the Civil War.
Last year, the city’s George Washington High School erased a mural of the nation’s first president because of its supposedly insensitive depictions of Native Americans and slaves.
In August 2017, in his controversial comments on the Charlottesville riots, President Donald Trump warned that attacks on Confederate statues would eventually lead to attacks on monuments to American heroes.
“So this week, it’s Robert E. Lee, I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after. You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” he said.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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