Star Op/ed Piece Says Andrew Jackson Sculpture Should Stay

The Kansas City Star had an op/ed piece in the paper Sunday by a woman who is "...of Olathe ..." and "...works in art conservation with a professional background in analytical chemistry, studio art and art history", wrote that we should keep the statue of Andrew Jackson downtown at the courthouse.

 

Don’t ditch artistic Andrew Jackson 

courthouse statue

Which would be fine, sure, if our only emphasis or guide on this issue were art, sure. If it were only about sculpture, it would be great. Leave the statue there.

But it's not, no way, only about that. This is not about art.

It's also very much about history. It's about history and justice and fairness and racial equality and it's about not honoring, no longer honoring someone who was directly responsible for torturing and killing, yes killing, our own American citizens.  And that is Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson was a slaver, 

ethnic cleanser, and tyrant

Andrew Jackson: 

America’s Most Violent President

The Slave-Owning, 

Indian-Killing History Of The Man

These statues famously, famously went up in the early 1900s because African-Americans had been freed, had been no longer slaves in our nation. Our white citizens, we now know, wanted to "honor" these men of the South. They wanted to make sure they kept these African-American citizens "down" and "in their place." We know this. It's extremely well known. This, this is why these statues were made and installed.

How the US Got So Many Confederate Monuments

Confederate Statues Were Built To Further A 'White Supremacist Future'

Most Confederate Monuments Weren't Built Until the Rise of Jim Crow

Worse, Andrew Jackson not only owned fellow Americans, not only did he own slaves and support slavery of African-American in our nation, but he was also responsible for the torture and killing of an entirely additional race of Americans and that would be Native Americans, of course.

Andrew Jackson, Indian Removal, 

and the Trail of Tears

The author of this opinion piece clearly hasn't studied our national history. They clearly need to study Reconstruction after the Civil War, the Black Code laws, Jim Crow laws and even segregation from its inception to today.  This author seems to have clearly never seen but needs to see this piece from PBS.

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

So sure, let's enjoy art. Let's enjoy artworks. Let's go to the Nelson and the Bloch Center for Contemporary Art and all the other places. Heck, the Country Club Plaza, wherever.

But let's make it clear.

This Andrew Jackson sculpture, which was put there to honor him, should come down.

Let there be no doubt.

And then, when we're done there, let's rename the county.

Truman County sounds good.

On Institutionalized Racism: Now, Two Things Kansas City Can and Should Do

Given the killing of George Floyd and the consequent race protests across the nation and world, now would be an excellent time for Kansas City to make a couple more changes. Sure, it's been announced the local police are finally going to have and wear cameras on them all the time and that's a great change but here are two more we should make.

First, as Steve Kraske so well and rightly said some time ago, we need to rename the JC Nichols Fountain.

Steve Kraske: Kansas City should confront racist past and rename J.C. Nichols fountain

JC Nichols was a publicly known racist. He's one of the biggest reasons the city was and still is, to this day, so racially segregated and separated. Mr. Kraske did a great job of calling it out at the time, thankfully. Unfortunately, that was 3 years ago and nothing has yet been done. It's incredibly ironic that these racial protests are taking place around the fountain named after him and at the shopping center he created.

Then, next, the second thing we should do, as a city, is to finally, at long last, take down the Andrew Jackson statue downtown. There is no bigger or worst, known racist than Andrew Jackson, former President or no.

Andrew Jackson, President, Patriot, War Hero, Racist

Andrew Jackson was a slaver, 

ethnic cleanser, and tyrant

The 11 Most Racist U.S. Presidents

Andrew Jackson Racist Quotes

The state and Governor of Virginia are doing it, so should we.

Virginia governor announces removal of 

Robert E. Lee statue

Philadelphia, too, removed a statue of racist former Mayor Frank Rizzo.

Philadelphia removes statue 

of controversial former mayor

Birmingham, too, did the right thing and removed a statue. This was 2 days ago.

Birmingham Mayor Orders Removal 

of Confederate Monument

This was announced late today.

Kentucky governor: Jefferson Davis statue should be moved

To be clear and complete, too, we should take down this Andrew Jackson statue downtown and melt it down, not put it anywhere else.

It's time, Kansas City. It's time.   In fact, it's long, long past time.

Let's do this.

Let's change both.

Additinal links:

Steve Kraske: I’m still talking about J.C. Nichols, racism and renaming the fountain

Kraske: Rename Plaza Fountain Because Racism

Next Up? That Andrew Jackson Statue Downtown

Think about this.

Last weekend, writer, reporter Steve Kraske, of the Kansas City Star and KCUR, the local NPR station, penned an article in the Saturday paper calling for the renaming of the J.C. Nichols fountain on our own Country Club Plaza because, well, the fact is, Mr. Nichols was a blatant, very public racist.

And sure, there are and will be plenty in the city who think it's crazy and/or unnecessary and/or just out and out stupid.

But the fact is, the City Council is meeting today and talking about doing just that.

On another local blog today I saw a comment and it made me realize what's next.

Yeah, that Andrew Jackson statue downtown? The one in front of the County Courthouse?

It will be next up for evaluation.

You want racist? It just doesn't get any more racist than US President Andrew Jackson.

Indian-Killer Andrew Jackson Deserves Top Spot on List of Worst US Presidents 

And it's not just that he was racist, though that's bad enough. He's been listed as one of the nation's worst presidents for years and for a range of reasons. Here are links to just three articles, of many, many that are available, spelling out how awful he was.

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

Andrew Jackson was America's worst 

'great' president 

5 Reasons We Should Kick Andrew Jackson 

Off the $20 Bill 

Here is just a bit for which he's known.

When Jackson was inaugurated, he held a party in the White House to which anyone was invited. People trashed the place, even snipping bits out of the curtains as souvenirs. This story confirmed all the worst fears of Jackson’s critics. His predecessor, John Quincy Adams, who Jackson had defeated in a horrifically bad-tempered election, was so horrified by Jackson’s triumph that he refused to attend the inauguration – the last outgoing president in history to have boycotted his successor’s big day. Men like Adams – who came from a Massachusetts family that had fought for Independence and feared for the survival of the republic (particularly his father, John Adams) – saw Jackson as a profane, unprincipled demagogue; a would-be tyrant in the Napoleonic mode; a man with no respect for the checks and balances of the Constitution or the rule of law.

The first president to have risen from lowly origins, Jackson became famous as the general who had defeated the British at the battle of New Orleans in 1815. Previously known for buying a slave plantation in Tennessee (in 1803) and for taking part in a high-profile duel (with Charles Dickinson in 1806), after the battle of New Orleans he went on to win more fame fighting the Seminole Indians.

In office, Jackson was an aggressive wielder of the president’s hitherto unused veto power. He stopped Congress from spending money on new roads or canals, and he prevented the re-charter of the Bank of the United States, which had attempted to regulate the money supply and served as a lender of last resort. And whatever political challenge he faced, his language was hyperbolic. “You are a den of vipers and thieves,” he wrote to the directors of the Bank of the US, “I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out”. When he left office, the country was plunged into the deepest recession anyone could remember.

So, yes, Steve Kraske's idea and proposal struck a lot of people unawares but with all the removal of statues of racists first in New Orleans, then in St. Louis and the national conversations its inspired, I would absolutely look for this one to come up, too, shortly.

Like it, agree with it or no.

Reagan on the $50.00 bill?

It seems the Republicans have come up with an idea they want to push.

For health care reform?

Reducing the budget?

Some other important goal for the good of the country?

Oh, heck no. They want to tinker, instead, with the $50.00 bill.

They love, love, love their man Former President Ronald Reagan so they've come up with the idea of replacing U.S. Grant on the 50 with Ronnie.

Whoop-ti-do.

My first reaction is just that--why don't these people focus on working together to solve our problems, rather than toying with who's on our money?

My second thought is pretty much, so what? Grant helped get us through the Civil War, the biggest internal mess this country's ever been in, to date but he was alcoholic. He had his problems, like the rest of us. He was no saint.

But actually, this got me thinking.

If Republicans want to replace someone on our paper money, they've picked the wrong guy and denomination.

The guy we should replace is Andrew Jackson on the twenty.

Now there's a guy who should be ousted.

Things Andrew Jackson did:

--put many of his friends in government jobs;

--killed or effectively tortured many Native Americans;

--exercised his power in government by ignoring two branches of government;

--was a slave owner and horrific racist;

--broke campaign promises (typical, right?);

--didn't just kill many Native Americans, he was responsible for the Trail of Tears--thousands of Native Americans died because of him;

--saw to the "removal" of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands (see the following: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html) both prior to and during his Presidential tenure.

So, yeah, Republicans, take Andrew Jackson and the $20.00 bill. Have at it.

Then get over it, stop messing around and work on the things that really matter.

Like seeing to it our clearly-broken health care system works, instead, and maybe passing legislation outlawing "earmarks" in Congress.

Now there's some things worth spending time on.