Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key statues toppled in San Francisco Golden Gate Park

[mahatmakanejeeves]

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

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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]

1. Awesome!!

[3Hotdogs]

2. --- guess the Washington Monument is next.

[denem]

3. Key was a nasty piece of work.

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 slavery’s abolishment. Key hoped to silence abolitionists, who, he charged, wished to “associate and amalgamate with the negro.”

Though Crandall’s 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]

14. and then the patriarchy

People have opposed the washington monument for being phallic

[packman]

4. Does this mean The Star Spangled Banner might be on the chopping block?

[spike jones]

6. I would hope so. Here is part of third verse.

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]

7. Compare it to the national anthems of other industrialized countries....

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]

16. In recent years, I have concluded this:

A National Anthem really should be about the country, shouldn’t it? The Star Spangled Banner is really about the flag surviving a battle, NOT about the country.

I’ve often wondered if there was a spirited debate at the time it was adopted! It seems like such a weird song, and of course it’s impossible to sing!

[paleotn]

17. I agree....

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.

[moose65]

18. Agreed

Most people don’t 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]

22. I think the flag was a metaphor

At least that is what I was taught.

[rurallib]

8. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Time for Woody Guthrie's 'This land is Your Land'

[jayschool2013]

10. I'm down with this anthem

At least for the next few months (or however long his miserable life lasts)

[niyad]

5. Good. Both of the, were nasty pieces of work. As nasty as Key was, serra was worse. The

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]

19. Serra is very highly regarded by mexicans for spreading catholicism

And attacking the Cervantes statue was stupid. This isn't going to go over very well in the latino community.

[niyad]

20. And did he spread catholicism in Mexico in a less ugly way than in CA?

[BigmanPigman]

28. I know!

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]

9. Folks are tired of society venerating....

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]

11. Likewise with our currency.

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]

12. I get it, I think

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]

13. It isn't about us

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]

15. The statue of General Grant was also toppled

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/demonstrators-topple-statues-in-san-franciscos-golden-gate-park/2312839/%3famp

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

34. That one I don't get

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]

21. Personally I think judging historical figures by modern standards is silly. nt

[jgmiller]

23. I agree

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]

25. The pyramids were not built by slaves. That's an invented myth.

The workers were paid.

[EX500rider]

27. Not so fast...

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]

29. I never said slavery didn't exist in ancient Egypt. All the ancient civilizations had slaves.

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]

30. Well quarrying the stone is step one of building them nt

[Polybius]

31. How can you be positive that the aliens didn't use slaves?

You think they built them themselves?

[RhodeIslandOne]

33. I thought they were built by aliens.

[Raine]

26. I do too

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]

24. In Houston

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]

32. Junior: Dem radicals are illegally tearing down monuments to Catholic Saints, George Washington, ...

Katrina Pierson Retweeted

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 aren’t the police arresting these criminals? And why isn't
@JoeBiden
condemning this crimewave?

Link to tweet