{"id":29912,"date":"2020-07-06T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colorlines.madeostudio.com\/article\/frederick-douglass-statue-destroyed-historic-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2020-07-06T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T17:00:00","slug":"frederick-douglass-statue-destroyed-historic-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/article\/frederick-douglass-statue-destroyed-historic-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Frederick Douglass Statue Destroyed on Historic Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Frederick Douglass Statue Destroyed on Historic Anniversary<\/h3>\n

\n By N. Jamiyla Chisholm<\/span> Jul 06, 2020<\/span>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \n \"Frederick\n <\/picture>\n <\/figure>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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On July 5, 1852, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Frederick Douglass<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> gave his famous speech \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u201d in Rochester, New York. But 168 years later on the date that marked the speech\u2019s anniversary, Douglass\u2019 statue was destroyed in that very same town yesterday, the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> reports.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Law enforcement told the AP that the statue was taken from Maplewood Park, designated as a <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>National Underground Railroad Network<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> (Network to Freedom) site by the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>National Park Service<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> in 2017, which Douglass had used to help usher people to freedom. Police said they found the statue at the Genesee River gorge, about 50 feet from its pedestal. The Rochester community has long honored Douglass and made history when they erected the first statue of him in 1920, making it the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>first time a Black person<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> was memorialized with a statue in the United States.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat comes of this? Is this some type of retaliation because of the national fever over confederate monuments right now?\u201d Carvin Eison, project director of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Re-energizing the Legacy of Frederick Douglass<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, asked <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>WROC<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. \u201cVery disappointing; it’s beyond disappointing.\u201d Eison\u2019s group was <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>reportedly<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> responsible for getting the statue, one of 13, placed in the city. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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And Eison might be onto something, as Baltimore demonstrators roped, pulled down and then dumped a Christopher Columbus statue (not a Confederate, but to many a mass murderer) into the city’s Inner Harbor the night before Douglass\u2019 was vandalized, the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Baltimore Sun<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> reported on July 4. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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See the Baltimore <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>video<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> below, courtesy of tweeter Spencer Compton<\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Baltimore just tore down the Columbus statue \u270a?\u270a?\u270a?\u270a?\u270a? #blacklivesmatter<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/uX5ty8oI3f<\/a><\/p>\n

rn\u2014 spencer compton (@spencercompton) July 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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