#NY lawmakers push to replace state’s statues in US Capitol

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Statues representing New York in the US Capitol building are Gov. George Clinton (left) and Chancellor Robert Livingston (right).
Getty Images; Architect of the Capitol (2)

Two lawmakers from the city want to replace both of New York’s statues in the US Capitol saying they honor men with ties to slavery — even though one never actually owned any slaves.

As potential replacements for the statues of former Gov. George Clinton and former Chancellor Robert Livingston, the officials are offering a list of women that includes the late daughter of Eric Garner, who’s father was killed during a 2014 arrest on Staten Island that led her to become a Black Lives Matter activist.

Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Queens) and state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Brooklyn) said that Clinton — the state’s first governor and later vice president under Thomas Jefferson — “perpetuated the institution of slavery during his tenure.”

They say he needs to be replaced even though he never had any active hand in slavery because he also never took an active role in abolishing it.

“He was actively complicit and during his six successive terms as governor of New York, he ‘never raised a finger to end slavery,’ ” they wrote in a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“He never spoke publicly about abolition, and privately exchanged letters with Alexander Hamilton inquiring about the prices of slaves.”

Rozic and Comrie are also targeting the Capitol’s statue of Robert Livingston, who was state chancellor from 1777 to 1801, on grounds that he owned 15 slaves and was part of an extended family that owned 170.

In addition, Livingston’s family owned boats that transported slaves to New York City during 17 trips between 1730 and 1763, they said.

“Even while Livingston wrote about the rights of freed slaves, he continued to utilize slave labor on his Hudson River estate, Clermont,” they wrote.

“Additionally, Livingston and his brother John owned several brothels in lower Manhattan in the early nineteenth century. Black women resided in some of these brothels, working as either domestic servants or prostitutes.”

Both statues, which were contributed by the state, should be replaced with different monuments, the lawmakers wrote.

Their request came amid a push to remove statues of officials with ties to the Confederacy, and followed a decision by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to remove the portraits of four predecessors last week.

In their letter, Rozic and Comrie said that neither Clinton nor Livingston “upheld the values of our state during their lifetimes.”

“We need better representation for the people of New York State and we urge you to conduct a public search for new individuals to be commemorated,” they wrote.

In addition to Erica Garner-Snipes, their suggestions included Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug, who both represented the city in Congress; poet Emma Lazarus; Dr. S. Josephine Baker, first director of the New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene; and Emily Roebling, an engineer who helped complete the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband Washington Roebling fell ill.

“Most recently, Erica Garner-Snipes, the daughter of Eric Garner, was a young activist focusing on police reform and the Black Lives Matter movement,” they added.

“Any of these women are far more deserving of representing New York than the current statue honorees…An open, public search will likely find countless worthy honorees.”

Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment.