The Founding Fathers
George Washington is renowned as “the Father of our Country.” Thomas Jefferson is held in high esteem for committing the nation to the principle, enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, that “All men are created equal.” Yet these men, traditionally acclaimed as American heroes, were, along with many others of the nation’s Founders, slave owners.
In this time of reckoning for those who have been willing participants in the national sins of racism and oppression in the name of white supremacy, does having held black people in bondage disqualify such icons of liberty from the places of honor they have until now occupied? Should their statues be torn down and consigned to the same historical ash heap as those of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis?
Should the statues of Washington and Jefferson be torn down and consigned to the same historical ash heap as those of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis?
There are many today who strongly argue exactly that. They believe that in order to open the way to a new future of true equality for people of color, we must make a clean sweep of public monuments to our nation’s racist past.
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