#House Democrats include removal of Confederate statues, busts in funding bill

Enlarge Image

The statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart is removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.
AFP via Getty Images

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee released a federal funding bill Monday that includes a call for the removal of statues and busts of Confederate members and any “individuals with unambiguous records of racial intolerance,” according to the Committee’s summary.

The call to purge statues on Capitol Hill comes amid a national debate over the removal of Confederate monuments nationally in the wake of the killing of a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, in police custody, which has sparked protests over police brutality and racial injustice.

A draft of the bill’s text specifically defines Confederate Statues as statues “depicting any individuals who served as members of the Confederacy” or of “military forces of a State against the United States.”

The bill also names four specific statues to be removed: Charles Brantley Aycock, a lawyer, teacher and former North Carolina governor known as a pillar of the Democratic Party’s white supremacist campaigns and a promoter of segregation; John Caldwell Calhoun, former Vice-President of the Unites States who promoted slavery as a “positive good” beneficial to slaves; James Paul Clarke, former United States Senator of the Democratic Party and governor of Arkansas who was a proponent of white supremacy; and lastly and most significantly, Rodger B. Taney, a former Chief Justice of the United States who authored the Dred Scott decision ruling that black Americans “were not intended to be” American citizens.

The provision including removing the Confederate statues was added to a draft of the legislative funding bill that seeks to provide in excess of $4 billion to the legislative branch for the 2021 fiscal year, which begins in October.

Recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the removal of four portraits from the speaker’s lobby — the hallway outside the House chamber — of speakers that had served the Confederacy in prior years.

“There’s no room in the hallowed halls in this democracy, this temple of democracy, to memorialize people who embody violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy” Pelosi told reporters.

In response to the recent removal of monuments by activists nationally, President Trump signed an executive order for the creation of a ‘National Garden’ of statues.

“These statues are silent teachers in solid form of stone and metal. They preserve the memory of our American story and stir in us a spirit of responsibility for the chapters yet unwritten. These works of art call forth gratitude for the accomplishments and sacrifices of our exceptional fellow citizens who, despite their flaws, placed their virtues, their talents, and their lives in the service of our Nation,” the White House statement said.

The White House executive order states that a task force is being assembled and will be responsible for “Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes”. The National Garden of statues is due to be completed and open to the public in the year 2026.