The statue of former president Theodore Roosevelt in front of Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History is being removed.
The museum's president, Ellen Futter, explained the decision to the New York Times: “Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd,” she said. “We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism. Simply put, the time has come to move it.”
The statue depicts Roosevelt riding a horse while a Native American and Black man walked beside him.
Mayor Bill de Blasio "The city supports the museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue."
Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the former president, says he supports the statute's removal. “The world does not need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice,” he told the New York Times. “The composition of the Equestrian Statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy. It is time to move the statue and move forward.”
[Via]