Theodore Roosevelt statue to be removed from Museum of Natural History as row over racist symbols rages on
THE statue of Theodore Roosevelt perched outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City will be removed.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday the museum asked that the statue at the entrance to the museum on be “removed.”
His statue, which has stood outside the museum’s entrance since 1940, shows Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American man and an African man standing next to the horse.
“We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues ,” Futter said.
In 2017, protesters splashed red liquid on the Roosevelt statue base to represent blood and called for its removal as an emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism.”
Critics have said Columbus’ brutality toward Indigenous peoples is reason to remove the 70-foot tall statue.
The Manhattan statue was put up in 1892 as the Italian American community attempted to overcome prejudice and assimilate into American society.
New York , who is Italian American, defended the statue earlier this month, but said he understands the conversation around it.
“I understand the feelings about Christopher Columbus and some of his acts, which nobody would support,” Cuomo said.
“But the statue has come to represent and signify appreciation for the Italian American contribution to New York,” he added. “So for that reason, I support it.”