Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has reversed a decision to remove a George Washington statute from the City Hall after his decision sparked national outcry.
The statute of America’s first president was erected in 1984.
Mayor Johnson had claimed his decision to remove the statute was apolitical.
Johnson’s communications director Ronnie Reese told local media the statute removal was purely aesthetic.
"We're just freshening up the space. Making it a bit more current,” said Reese. “There's a lot of Chicago icons who would be deserving of statues as well. We should be considering that also - Ida B. Wells, DuSable, Harold Washington."
However, progressives have previously complained that statutes of founding fathers and other prominent revolutionary era Americans ignore their slave-owning past.
Conservatives had criticized Johnson’s removal plans, which were scrapped less than 24 hours after their announcement.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took personal issue with the matter, calling Johnson’s idea “leftism run amok.”
“The revolution would not been won, the republic would not have been founded, and the Constitution would not have been created without Washington,” said Governor DeSantis. “It was his character — defined by service above self and a willingness to refuse power — that held it all together.”
Earlier this year, pro-Palestine protestors defaced a nearly 100-year old Washington statute at George Washington University.
The statue of George Washington at George Washington University has been Palestinianized and defaced. pic.twitter.com/asuJ6OUCSr
— Alex Kennedy (@therealmindman) April 30, 2024
The protests at GW were the latest in a chain of nationwide demonstrations across college campuses criticizing the US’s support for Israel’s war efforts against Hamas.
Many protestors openly called for the destruction of the state of Israel, and some alleged the idea justifying Israel’s creation is a “racist settler-colonial ideology.”
