Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key statues toppled in San Francisco Golden Gate Park
Source: KTVU FOX 2
Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key statues toppled in San Francisco Golden Gate Park
By Andre Torrez Published 4 hours ago San Francisco KTVU FOX 2
SAN FRANCISCO - Two statues in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park were toppled on Friday, apparently the latest in the global trend of protesters looking to dismantle symbols of racist historical figures.
Both Francis Scott Key and Junipero Serra came tumbling down as documented on social media.
Key, the composer of "The Star Spangled Banner" back in 1814, was also known to have owned slaves. That monument was located near the de Young Museum.
The Junipero Serra statue located in the park's music concourse dates back to 1907.
Many have criticized the missionary for the oppression, forced conversions and devastation of native cultures.
Across town, a statue of Christopher Columbus was preemptively removed on Thursday from near Coit Tower before any activists could get to it. The statue was placed in storage at an undisclosed location.
City officials got word that protesters planned to topple the statue on Friday, but it appears they made other plans.
Read more: https://www.ktvu.com/news/junipero-serra-francis-scott-key-statues-toppled-in-san-francisco-golden-gate-park
https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/Protest-updates-Friday-Juneteenth-events-Bay-Area-15352164.php
Protest updates: Protesters tear down 2 statues in Golden Gate Park
By Amy Graff, Alyssa Pereira and Madeline Wells, SFGATE Updated 11:30 pm PDT, Friday, June 19, 2020
LATEST June 19, 11:20 p.m. Protesters toppled two statues in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Friday, according to multiple reports. (1)
Videos on social media showed people tearing down the likenesses of Francis Scott Key, the composer of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1814 and a slave owner, and Junipero Serra, founder of the missions of California.
(1) https://www.ktvu.com/news/junipero-serra-francis-scott-key-statues-toppled-in-san-francisco-golden-gate-park
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)3Hotdogs
(12,408 posts)denem
(11,045 posts)Key prosecuted a New York doctor living in Georgetown for possessing abolitionist pamphlets.
In the resulting case, U.S. v. Reuben Crandall, Key made national headlines by asking whether the property rights of slaveholders outweighed the free speech rights of those arguing for slaverys abolishment. Key hoped to silence abolitionists, who, he charged, wished to associate and amalgamate with the negro.
Though Crandalls offense was nothing more than possessing abolitionist literature, Key felt that abolitionists free speech rights were so dangerous that he sought, unsuccessfully, to have Crandall hanged.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/wheres-debate-francis-scott-keys-slave-holding-legacy-180959550/
IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)People have opposed the washington monument for being phallic
packman
(16,296 posts)spike jones
(1,686 posts)No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
paleotn
(17,960 posts)it is more than a bit violent and dick waving. And a pain to sing I hear. I've thought for years we could do far better.
moose65
(3,168 posts)A National Anthem really should be about the country, shouldnt it? The Star Spangled Banner is really about the flag surviving a battle, NOT about the country.
Ive often wondered if there was a spirited debate at the time it was adopted! It seems like such a weird song, and of course its impossible to sing!
paleotn
(17,960 posts)Not sure if there was much debate at the time at all. Not only was it about a flag surviving a battle, it was a war that never should have occurred in the first place. It was a disaster for the US for most its length and damn near split the country. Had Great Britain not had far bigger fish to fry, we would have lost badly.
Most people dont really know anything about the War of 1812.
We should ask them, Do you support a song from the war that pretty much was the final nail in the coffin of the indigenous people of this country? and watch the heads explode. 🙄
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)At least that is what I was taught.
rurallib
(62,448 posts)Time for Woody Guthrie's 'This land is Your Land'
jayschool2013
(2,313 posts)At least for the next few months (or however long his miserable life lasts)
niyad
(113,553 posts)infamous "el camino real", the mission system, was built on slavery, torture and murder. There were large protests by First Nation people's when this monster was canonized.
ansible
(1,718 posts)And attacking the Cervantes statue was stupid. This isn't going to go over very well in the latino community.
niyad
(113,553 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)As an elementary school teacher I had to teach the 4th grade curriculum and I HATED that it made Father Serra into a saint when in fact he killed natives for many reasons all along El Camino Real.
paleotn
(17,960 posts)questionable and despicable people. Here's an idea. Why don't we recognize that people are capable of both great and horrible things. We're all imperfect. So lets just stop lionizing each other in statuary. Just stop it. You want to build a monument to freedom or justice, Lady Liberty or Lady Justice, I'm all for it.
NYC Liberal
(20,136 posts)I'm fairly certain (though there might be exceptions) that early on, all of our currency didn't have actual people on it but either just designs, eagles, or fictional personifications of Liberty. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Sgent
(5,857 posts)but we are going to quickly lose the widespread public support we now enjoy if we continue to topple any statue of a slaveholder.
Topple those that were used as propaganda in the Lost Cause, and any of those statues that venerate people for supporting the cause of slavery (ie the civil war), but staying on point is useful towards getting things done. Becoming a movement known for its hatred of Jefferson and Washington will quickly result in loss of political will and power and systemic change.
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Protestors are doing this on their own and without any direction and without hand-wringing over inanimate objects.
As far as confederate statues do we oppose the Confederate statues because they were racist or because they were traitors?
In the end whether these statues stay up or not we need to confront racism.
hardluck
(640 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)The justification I've been told is he married into a slave holding family.
Yet if the recent TV special on Grant is correct he gave the one slave his wife inherited his freedom.
While president Grant had the federal troops make sure reconstruction was enforced in the former Confederate states. It was his successor Rutherford B. Hayes who withdrew the troops which resulted in 100 years of Jim Crow segregation.
EX500rider
(10,858 posts)jgmiller
(395 posts)It's one thing to remove things related to the confederacy the lost, they were traitors and the statues were erected long after they died for racist reasons. However to just say all statues of any one who did anything bad that in their era wasn't considered bad is silly. Does this mean that Egypt should tear down the pyramids because they were built by slaves and they were tributes to terrible rulers? Where does it stop and become re-writing history?
Coventina
(27,172 posts)The workers were paid.
EX500rider
(10,858 posts)Eygpt was most certainly a slave state and even if the builders weren't slaves the quarries and mines workers were.
Captive slaves were mostly assigned to the temples or a king, and they had to do manual labor. The worst thing that could happen to a slave was being assigned to the quarries and mines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_antiquity#Ancient_Egypt
Coventina
(27,172 posts)But the pyramids weren't built by slaves, that's the fact I was correcting.
And yes, traditionally, all the worst jobs were given to slaves. In Egypt, and everywhere else.
No pre-modern society was free of it.
EX500rider
(10,858 posts)Polybius
(15,476 posts)You think they built them themselves?
RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)and what we do now will be judged harshly in the future like the treatment of the environment, animals and many other things
cannabis_flower
(3,765 posts)The Christopher Columbus statue was vandalized twice recently although it wasn't really damaging. In fact, I barely consider it vandalism. First it had red paint thrown on it. Then it had tomato sauce thrown on it.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,607 posts)Dem radicals are trying to destroy American history.
They're illegally tearing down monuments to Catholic Saints, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant & more.
Why arent the police arresting these criminals? And why isn't
@JoeBiden
condemning this crimewave?
Link to tweet