On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted on the removal of artwork that glorifies Confederate slavers and their defenders from the U.S. Capitol. This will also include those who served in the military.
The bill showed bipartisan support, the final vote tally was 285-120, with 26 abstaining.
Republican lawmakers were the only ones to vote against the bill, with only 67 of them joining the Democrats, who already made up 218 votes.
The Hill wrote, “The legislation would order the removal of more than half a dozen Confederate statues currently displayed in the Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. Under the current rules for the collection, a statue can be removed only if the state government that contributed it gives the green light.”
“Those statues include figures such as Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy; Alexander Hamilton Stephens, the Confederacy’s vice president; and Wade Hampton, a South Carolina planter who served as a Confederate military officer and went on to become a governor and a senator,” they added.
Republicans who voted agaisnt the bill worry that this now causes a slippery slope.
Congressman Matt Rosendale said, “Unfortunately, Democrats, animated by the Critical Race Theory concepts of structural racism, microaggressions, and a United States based solely on white supremacy, have chosen to remove statues that underscore the failures of our pre-1861 Constitution. Make no mistake, those who won the West and George Washington are next.”
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green said, “All the tyrants throughout history tear down statues and attempt to erase history in order to reign with an iron fist.” She also called the decision a “power grab.”
House Minority leader, Kevin McCarthy pointed out all of the statues that are being removed are of Democratic leaders and suggested that the party change their name.
Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass said, “My ancestors built this building. Imagine how they would feel knowing that more than 100 years after slavery was abolished in this country, we still paid homage to the very people that betrayed this country in order to keep my ancestors enslaved. Imagine how I feel and other African Americans and people of color feel walking through Statuary Hall and knowing that there are monuments to people who supported and embraced and fight for the break-up of our country.”
House Majority Leader said, “We ought not to forget history. We must learn from history. But we ought not to honor that which defiled the principles for which we think we stand.”
Now that the bill passed in the House, it now will be passed on to the Senate for their decision.
