Slavery advocate's statue being removed in South Carolina
Source: AP
By MEG KINNARD
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The historic South Carolina city of Charleston was removing a symbol of its legacy on Wednesday, sending crews to take away a statue honoring John C. Calhoun, an early U.S. vice president whose zealous defense of slavery led the nation toward civil war.
After a nightlong struggle to dislodge it, city crews were still working after daybreak to lift the statue from a pedestal that towers over a downtown square along Calhoun Street. The city and its mayor voted unanimously Tuesday to remove it, the latest in a wave of actions arising from protests against racism and police brutality against African Americans.
Crews in bucket trucks soared more than 100 feet (30-meters) to reach the top of the pedestal, where they strapped the statue around its shoulders in preparations for its removal using an even taller piece of equipment.
A few hundred people, most of them in favor of removal, gathered to watch it come down. City officials said the statue will be placed permanently at “an appropriate site where it will be protected and preserved.”
People gather in Marion Square in the historic South Carolina city of Charleston, early Wednesday, June 24, 2020, to watch the removal of a statue of former vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun. In the wake of protests and unrest, city council members voted Tuesday to remove the statue and place it permanently at “an appropriate site where it will be protected and preserved.” (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Read more: https://apnews.com/a88ad98372bbb810d1261d61acb5350f
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