The District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions (DCFACES) Working Group recommended the federal government to “remove, relocate or contextualize” several memorials and monuments. The proposal included the Jefferson Memorial, George Mason Memorial, George Washington Statute and the Benjamin Franklin Statue.
“Priority should be placed on ensuring future assets, especially and including those recommended for renaming by this Working Group, include more women, people of color and LGBTQ Washingtonians,” the report read.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who created the committee, launched the initiative in July.
“I tasked the DCFACES Working Group with evaluating public spaces to ensure the namesake’s legacy is consistent with #DCValues,” wrote Bowser on Twitter. “They have delivered the report, and I look forward to reviewing and advancing their recommendations.”
Republicans fired back.
“Hey D.C.—they’re not your monuments to rename or remove,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) fired back on Twitter.
“They’re America’s monuments.”
The White House denounced the mayor for welcoming a plan that recommended eliminating America’s history.
The “liberal mayor of Washington, D.C., is repeating the same left-wing narrative used to incite dangerous riots: demolishing our history and destroying our great heritage,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
The federal statues and memorials listed are:
- Christopher Columbus – Columbus Fountain
- Benjamin Franklin – Benjamin Franklin Statute
- Andrew Jackson – Andrew Jackson Statue
- Thomas Jefferson – Jefferson Memorial
- George Mason – George Mason Memorial
- Francis Griffith Newlands – Newlands Memorial Fountain
- Albert Pike – Albert Pike Statute
- George Washington – Washington Monument, George Washington Statute