Janice R. Andrews
A representative for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration stated on Tuesday that, in an unexpected turn of events, the monument of George Washington was originally going to be taken down from outside the mayor’s office at City Hall. The choice suggested a change to instead recognize a well-known Black Chicagoan. But by late evening, a well-known City Council opponent hinted that the administration might be going back on its choice.
The chairman of the City Council’s Cultural Affairs Committee and representative for the 38th Ward, Alderman Nicholas Sposato, disclosed that Jason Lee, Johnson’s senior advisor, appeared to attribute the issue to Lori Lightfoot’s prior administration. He claimed that they had no desire to do it. Sposato told the Tribune, “It was a’snafu’ from the previous government of some kind. “I wasn’t asking questions, I wasn’t criticizing, I was just happy it wasn’t coming down.”
In a text message sent on Tuesday night, Jason Lee claimed that he was unaware of the possible removal of the statue until that same day. The mayor’s office informed him that the statue will stay in its current location. “I don’t know anything more about its affiliation with another administration at this time. Lee stated, “Just took the response and moved on.
Regarding the choice to maintain the statue, mayoral spokesperson Ronnie Reese remained silent when questioned on Tuesday night. Mayor Johnson declined to provide further details about his thinking or his plans to replace the statue during an unrelated news conference earlier in the day. Later, Reese explained to the Tribune that there was no relationship between the statue’s relocation and George Washington’s history as a slave owner, saying it was being moved because of “updates to several locations in and around City Hall.” He said, “No, it’s literally just moving a statue.”
There were still unknowns regarding the Washington statue’s timeline, price, or future location. The statue is currently on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. Reese, on the other hand, suggested paying tribute to notable Black local historical figures, like Ida B. Wells, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, and Harold Washington, the city’s first Black mayor, who Johnson had mentioned a lot throughout his campaign.
“There are a few more people that we can think about for monuments: Chicagoans, people who are significant to the city’s history, and we should keep thinking about statues,” Reese stated. “Maybe a statue in honor of some of the leaders who lost their lives in the 1919 race riots? We might be recognizing the long history of notable African Americans and Americans from the city.
Another Johnson ally, Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, was in favor of establishing a public area to host the controversial personalities’ statues that are now in place. This idea is similar to the Memento Park in Hungary, which is home to statues of Communist era officials. Ramirez-Rosa suggested that this area might house the sculptures of Christopher Columbus that were taken down under Lightfoot’s leadership.
Ramirez-Rosa did not address the George Washington statue directly, but he did say, “I mentioned this idea in passing to the administration as a suggestion of what could be done with statues, and I’m glad that Mr. Reese likes the idea.”
Mayor Johnson’s progressive views on reconsidering which historical people the city should honor are reflected in the possible removal of the statue. This controversial discussion is still going strong across the country, even in Chicago, especially in light of the 2020 national reckoning on race.
The Columbus statue in Grant Park was previously taken down by former mayor Lightfoot after a heated altercation in the summer of 2020. She gave the monuments commission, which in 2022 suggested examining the statues of more historical individuals, the task of deciding what to do with that one and the others. That account omitted the City Hall monument of George Washington.
Although Johnson’s administration did not implement these recommendations, the mayor has moved to change Chicago’s monument policy. Johnson declared last summer that the city will use grant money totaling $6.8 million to create eight new monuments, one of which would be a memorial for victims of police torture.
Johnson led the drive to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day while serving as a Cook County commissioner. However, the attempt was derailed when a fellow commissioner revealed that he was descended from Black Americans who had been held as slaves by Native Americans.
The George Washington statue’s uncertain future serves as a reminder of the difficult and frequently divisive process involved in deciding which historical individuals should be honored in public areas. While Mayor Johnson works through this delicate situation, Chicago’s larger discourse over historical memory and representation is developing.
