“The time to honor the slave-owning founders of our imperfect union is past. The ground, which should have moved long ago, has at last shifted beneath us,” Lucian K. Truscott IV writes in his recent Opinion essay, “I’m a Direct Descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Take Down His Memorial.”
The question of who — or what — should be memorialized in stone, on street signs or as a national monument has been fervently discussed in recent weeks by both our writers and our readers. Many have identified monuments they think should be torn down. So we asked readers: What should stand in their place?
In more than a thousand responses they suggested an array of historical figures as well as new ways to remember our past. A collection of their responses is below. They have been edited for length and clarity.
‘Put them in their rightful place and context’
I think the answer is that you keep the Jefferson Memorial and then also build a new statue in honor of Tubman. How hard is that? History next to history. The good and the bad. — Rachel Phillips, South Carolina
Putting a statue of Harriet Tubman in the place of Thomas Jefferson in the Washington memorial that now bears his name is a meaningful idea. Yes, let Monticello stand. We should not bury the past, as we might if we just “disappear” Confederate monuments. But let’s put them in their rightful place and context — icons of our nation’s painful wrongs that we should attempt to address today. — Diane Lade, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Remove Jefferson from that pedestal and carve out that spot — make it deep. Then, in bronze, place the 200 slaves he owned. When the visitor looks down they see a guilt-ridden Jefferson looking up, with a sheaf of papers and on them — only half written — “all men are created … ” — James Harrison, Portland, Ore.
‘On whose backs the nation was built’
There is room for one more memorial, right in the middle of the national mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, to slaves and their descendants on whose backs the nation was built and the whip was cracked, to Native Americans who endured and died under horrible repression and to all others who suffered the agonies of racism. — Donald G. Wogaman, Springfield, Va.
The Underground Railroad is marked in Detroit for slaves who escaped across the river to Canada. There must be myriad places like this in the South. All of the protest sites from the 20th and 21st centuries, where people gathered and were gassed, injured or killed, should be marked. Not monuments to men, but spaces for people to gather anew. To link to our curated collective memory. — Alexis Levine, Pennsylvania
‘Everyday heroes whose sacrifices have laid bare the stubborn injustices of our society’
Memorials and monuments commemorating the four girls — Addie Mae Collins (age 14, born April 18, 1949), Carol Denise McNair (age 11, born Nov. 17, 1951), Carole Robertson (age 14, born April 24, 1949) and Cynthia Wesley (age 14, born April 30, 1949) — killed in the domestic terrorist attack and bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, so that we may never forget what racist hate has wasted. — Che Baraka, Brooklyn, N.Y.
It is horrifying that I can track the course of my adult life in increments of time marked by the high-profile murders of Black people by cops. States who are serious about ending injustice in our society should replace those dusty old white men in the Capitol House Chamber, many of whom were also avowed racists, with those of people who unwillingly gave their lives, and in doing so brought injustice to light. People like Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Michael Brown and George Floyd. Isn’t it time to acknowledge those unfortunate everyday heroes whose sacrifices have laid bare the stubborn injustices of our society? — Arnold Martin, Pasadena, Calif.
‘Native Americans deserve recognition in the history of our land’
Tecumseh, Sacagawea, Sitting Bull, Pocahontas, Squanto, Geronimo, and Apache and Pueblo leaders of the 1680 revolt against Spanish settlers in Santa Fe. Native Americans deserve recognition in the history of our land since Jamestown. — Katharine Grant Galaitsis, Lexington, Mass.
Wilma Mankiller, the first woman principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, who led her people into the modern era, nearly 135 years after their forced removal from their original homelands in Georgia. Her leadership to move toward nationhood and her defense of tribal sovereignty continues to have ripple effects. — Suzette Brewer, United States
I would like to see a very large monument, featuring hundreds, if not thousands, of statues to represent all of the Native and African Americans who died as a result of the colonization of the Western Hemisphere. This monument would commemorate the loss of millions of people from disease, violence, neglect, starvation and the other ways in which Indigenous Americans died as a result of both the deliberate and unintended consequences of colonization. — Greg Kasarik, Melbourne, Australia
Those who made ‘the promise of America true for all women’
I would like to see a park for suffragists with two monuments in D.C. One would be for Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Sophonisba Breckinridge, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Matilda Joslyn Gage and other suffragists who fought for the ratification of the 19th Amendment that granted white women the right to vote. Alongside that monument, a monument to Black suffragists — Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune and the Black women without whose work the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would not have been passed. Any monument to women’s suffrage has to unequivocally and equally acknowledge the fight of Black women to make the promise of America true for all women, not just white women. — Caroline Dunbar, Northampton, Mass.
I am sick to death of statues of men, sick of their faces on all our currency, their deeds recounted in all our textbooks and many other examples too numerous to mention. Given that women are more than 50 percent of the population, it sure would be nice to have equal representation in the public sphere. — Marilyn Gillis, Vermont
The workers, from our homes to our factories
A collective monument to working people, encompassing all colors, classes and, most important, types of work. From domestic workers and care workers to factory workers and construction workers and service workers, all had a hand in building this country. — Thomas Lonergan, Minneapolis
The pandemic has really shown us how much we depend on farm workers and how little respect they earn for the arduous work they do. Many are immigrants with few rights and protections. Cesar Chavez worked hard to organize and give some power to this group whom we now finally recognize as essential workers. — Donna Oglio Goldoff, Brooklyn, N.Y.
America really needs to hold up and acknowledge people from the union movement. Why are the captains of industry held up as such brilliant heroes when their efforts generally led to the economic and social degradation of those who worked to translate their ideas into reality? — Timothy Olmstead, Newberg, Ore.
‘The conscience of America’
A monument/memorial to the peaceful American protester. They, better than most, have continually asked the question, “Why is our government behaving unjustly?” They cry, “Stop it!” The protester is the strongest humanized force keeping America on its promised path. The protester is a true moral compass and honest reflection of the power of the free expression of humankind. The protester is the conscience of America. — Robert L. Briggs, Tulsa, Okla.
I have envisioned for decades a West Coast version of the Statue of Liberty called the Statue of Responsibility, to acknowledge our whole history. Perhaps the figure of a man with his hand raised like a basketball player acknowledging a foul, located on Alcatraz Island. We cannot be an adult nation until we are willing to take responsibility for our mistakes and stop pretending it was our little sister who did it. — Tim Holmes, Helena, Mont.
‘Look for a different way to remember the past’
Monuments that honor a specific person should not be erected. If they are, they should be erected with the understanding that they can be removed. Is any person so pure of heart and motive to deserve immortalization? A museum would help society understand the brilliance and hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson far better than a statue and a plaque ever could. — Greg Puckett, Nebraska
History can be shaped by great men — as many of us were taught in school — but much more than that, it is shaped by movements and mobs and long processes that are invisible to us where we stand with our feet in the present day. I suggest that we, as a culture, sit down and search our souls and look for a different way to remember the past. One that reminds rather than reveres, commemorates rather than commends and takes fully into account the good and the bad in all of our actors. — Maeve McIver-Sheridan, Seattle
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