KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News By MATT BROWN The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has restored a memorial to a Confederate general in Washington, D.C. that demonstrators took down during racial justice protests in the summer of 2020, part of a broader effort by the president to reshape the way the country’s history is told.
The statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general and diplomat who later served on the Arkansas Supreme Court, is the only outdoor statue of a Confederate leader in the nation’s capital. It has been contentious since it was first placed in 1901.
Racial justice protestors in 2020 removed the statue from its pedestal and set it on fire on Juneteenth, a holiday among Black Americans that commemorates the end of slavery. The day was recognized as a federal holiday the following year.
The National Park Service in August announced plans to restore the statue in response to a pair of spring executive orders by President Donald Trump about the administration of the nation’s capital and how history is presented.
The administration has already ordered a review of the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions to align the institution’s content with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of American history. The park service is under orders to review interpretive materials at all its historical properties and remove or alter descriptions that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” or otherwise sully the American story.
The statue becomes a political flashpoint
The statue has returned to Judiciary Square, a downtown complex that includes an array of federal and municipal courthouses and the D.C. police headquarters.
Conservatives had seized on the monument’s removal as an example of destructive excess and vandalism by protestors during the summer of 2020. Some rightwing activists praised the statue’s restoration following Trump’s order.
But critics of the monument argue that the public placement of Pike’s statue endorses his views and actions rather than simply commemorates them.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s lone non-voting elected official in Congress, called the statue’s restoration a “morally objectionable move” in a statement this week. She has proposed legislation in Congress that would permanently remove the memorial…
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