Three legislators want Douglas statue removed
Wednesday, Jul 15, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Neal Earley at the Sun-Times…
The “Little Giant” has towered over the Bronzeville neighborhood for well over a century — and three Chicago Democrats say that’s far too long.
State Representatives Kam Buckner, Curtis J. Tarver II and Lamont J. Robinson Jr. wrote a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday calling for the governor to remove a nine-foot-tall bronze statue of Stephen Douglas from atop his tomb on Chicago’s South Side.
“There is an edifice dedicated to allowing a bigot even in his grave to look down upon the Black community,” the three South Side lawmakers wrote. “This is indefensible.”
The three members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus made it clear they are not calling for Douglas’ body to be exhumed from the tomb, just removal of the statue, dubbing it “a tribute to a widely known racist and sexist who even staked his presidential platform on the subjugation of any non-white male in America.”
* The full letter…
* Sun-Times…
Getting the Douglas monuments out of the Illinois Capitol and its grounds — and cutting his legacy down to size in Bronzeville — is a good start toward making amends.
But let’s not forget about the bigger picture: A more economically fair Illinois and nation will go a much longer way toward ending racism.
That’s part of the solution.
- Steve Rogers - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 11:39 am:
I don’t agree with this. I have no problem removing statues of those who took up arms against the U.S. government, but Douglas wasn’t one of those. This is the beginning of the slippery slope. There will be a lot statues, even in the capitol, that will need to come down. Governors portraits that will need to come down. Seriously, where do we stop?
- JM - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 11:42 am:
In Illinois, grave robbery is now part of social justice
- Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 11:47 am:
Are they seriously suggesting changing his tomb? The man was a US Senator and worked to preserve the Union.
- Token Conservative - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 11:54 am:
I wish House Democrats were as concerned with balancing the state budget as they were about a painting, statue, and grave of a guy who has been dead for 150 years.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 11:55 am:
Swapping out statues in and around the Capitol is well within the thoughtful discussion to historic figures and this state, including portraits, plaques, swapping out things of recognition in and the around the Capitol Complex, yep, can agree on that.
I’ll leave it there for right now, unless we’re discussing a traitor of the United States during the time recognized as the Civil War.
Honoring those traitors in a public way (monument, portrait, plaque) those should be removed, post haste.
- Heat of Summer - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 11:58 am:
The inimitable Bob Marley told us where this will stop.
“Until the philosophy
Which hold one race superior and another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war”
- LawandOrder - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:08 pm:
765 ILCS 835
Cemetery Protection Act
Some in general assembly should read/review this soon…
- Sangamo Girl - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:10 pm:
It is a State Historic Site managed by DNR. 20 ILCS 3405 Historic Preservation Act.
- Cadillac - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:20 pm:
So the ILGA has time for this during a pandemic, but no time to address ethics reform and corruption?
Got it.
- Cheryl44 - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:21 pm:
If it’s just the statue and not the entire tomb I wouldn’t worry about this being desecration. OTOH, I would much prefer we change the park on the west side to Frederick Douglass Park. IMO, that would have more meaning than taking down a statue people pretty much forgot was there.
- essentially working - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:23 pm:
Forget it Cadillac, it’s Illinois…
- AlphaBettor - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:24 pm:
Douglas’s “Protect the Flag” speech, urging the Illinois legislature to support Lincoln and the Union, was one of American history’s great acts of putting party over country. The Lincoln and Douglas portraits in the House chamber are reminders of what the two parties can accomplish togetger. Whatever they do at the capitol, his final resting place should be sacrosanct.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:24 pm:
=== So the ILGA has time for this during a pandemic, but no time to address ethics reform and corruption?===
Now do Mississippi and changing their state flag…
That’s called timing… and at the right place and time making change… even if change is decades late from being on time.
- Froganon - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:36 pm:
Move the statue, leave the tomb. Make the tomb a full disclosure history lesson. Communities have the right to have statues and commerative parks that honor people important to that community. Change them in and out as times change. Traitors who betrayed the U.S. by fighting for/supporting the Confederacy, need to be removed asap.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:38 pm:
This is basically the desacration of a grave. He’s buried there. It’s his tomb. Leave it alone. Remove him from other places? Sure. But this one goes too far.
- Top of the State - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:48 pm:
=traitors who betrayed the U.S…=. Douglas supported the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. He was not a traitor for the Confederacy.
- Top of the State - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 12:56 pm:
A problem for Illinois History is that it is not covered in our public school curriculum like many other states. Kids grow up not knowing the history/geography of this state. A few public schools used to have a semester of Illinois History, and I taught it in the sixth grade. I doubt that is the case today, and historic sites suffer as a result….including Douglas Tomb.
- phocion - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 1:08 pm:
These legislators and the Governor’s office should be aware that the Stephen A. Douglas Tomb and Memorial has been designated a Chicago Landmark since 1977. As a first step, the City would have to agree to any alterations to the site.
Some information on the Douglas tomb from Wikipedia:
The Stephen A. Douglas Tomb and Memorial or Stephen Douglas Monument Park is located at 636 E. 35th Street in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois (part of the city’s Douglas community), near the site of the Union Army and prisoner of war Camp Douglas.
The memorial is a 96-foot granite structure comprising three circular bases and a 20-foot diameter octagonal mausoleum which holds Douglas’ sarcophagus. Large bronze allegorical figures portraying “Illinois,” “History,” “Justice,” and “Eloquence” are positioned at the four main corners of the mausoleum. Four bas-reliefs in the panels of the main base depict the advance of American civilization. A ten-foot statue of the Douglas stands atop a 46 ft column of white marble from his native state, Vermont.
Douglas, best remembered for debating Abraham Lincoln over slavery, died from typhoid fever on June 3, 1861 in Chicago, where he was buried on the shore of Lake Michigan. Immediately after his death an association of notable Chicagoans was formed to oversee the construction of a suitable tomb and monument, but its members failed to raise sufficient funds. In 1865 the state of Illinois purchased the tomb from Douglas’ widow, Adele Douglas, for $25,000. On June 3, 1868, Douglas’ body was placed in the completed portion of the tomb. Leonard Volk, a relative of Douglas, designed the tomb and monument. In 1871 the Great Chicago Fire destroyed Volk’s plans for the unfinished structure. The tomb was completed in May 1881, after an expense of $90,000.
The memorial was designated a Chicago Landmark on September 28, 1977. The tomb is maintained by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as a state historic site.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 1:17 pm:
===So the ILGA has time for this during a pandemic, but no time to===
Three members put out a press release.
- hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 2:34 pm:
I am supportive of a lot of statue/honoriffic changes in light of our reappraisal of past honorees that is occurring of late but messing with the statue on Douglas’s tomb just goes way too far for me.
Douglas was loyal to the Union cause despite his racism and donated property to the Union cause by giving the land for Camp Douglas near his tomb despite his racism.
His tomb was not located where it was to antagonize Black people. Bronzeville wasn’t the epicenter of Chicago Black culture at the time the statue was built. I am not aware whether many people at all lived around that location when the statue was completed in 1881.
This request does not seem as meritorious to me as many others.
- Anannymiss - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 4:00 pm:
Can Abe himself be far behind? Some of his views on blacks and race relations would not be tolerated today, so if all history is to be viewed and judged through the lens of 2020 - bye, Mr. Lincoln.
- Proud Sucker - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 4:06 pm:
hisgirlfriday raises a point similar to what I was contemplating. This was Douglas’ property before the civil war. He allowed the State to train troops there, the original Camp Douglas. After Grant’s capture of Ft. Donelson in Feb. 1862, it became a POW camp. Eventually, between 4,000 and 6,000 confederates died while in captivity. Those bodies were later exhumed and moved to mass graves in Oak Woods Cemetery on 67th Street. This is a really tough discussion to have but, we should have it.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Jul 15, 20 @ 5:20 pm:
===Can Abe himself be far behind===
The Emancipation Proclamation and several Amendments to the Constitution should be plenty to flatten your white fragility driven slippery slope.
===I wish House Democrats were as concerned with balancing the state budget ===
If one maintains the belief that Government can only do one thing at a time, it is perhaps understandable that you may have failed to notice the constitutional amendment that would allow sweeping tax reform in the state.
===This is basically the desecration of a grave.===
Tell that to the mummies at the Field Museum. As a matter of practice, the relocation of human remains is a thing that often occurs.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Jul 16, 20 @ 7:14 am:
=== In Illinois, grave robbery is now part of social justice.===
Wait, Douglas’ body is being moved? I thought we were talking about a statue.
And wasn’t a 9 feet statue overkill? I thought the dude was short.