At a hastily organized news conference today, the national president of the NAACP asserted that images of two of the presidents honored on Mount Rushmore, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, are "offensive and hurtful." National NAACP president Rev. William Barber claimed that he was shocked Friday when he was shown a picture of the monument. Upon researching the memorial's history on Wikipedia, he discovered what he described as "disturbing truths" that require the site's "total demolition." Both former presidents were slaveowners.
One historian who disagrees is Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin. "I sympathize with Reverend Barber, and normally I do not disagree with black people, especially those who are bigger than me. But as a student of history, I think we need to appreciate Mount Rushmore in its historical context."
These arguments have not changed Barber's mind. "He is right that it has a historical context," Barber said. "But what is that history? The history of racism. The history of lynchings. The history of death. The history of slavery. If you say that shouldn't be offensive, then either you don't know the history, or you are denying the history."
When asked why the images of Lincoln and Roosevelt should suffer the same fate, Barber laughed. "They've been hangin' with George and Tom too long to be innocent. They had their chance."
