A county in Missouri that is named after former President Andrew Jackson has decided it will take down two statues of him.
This comes even as county residents had voted in the past that they wanted the monuments to be kept up.
Officials from Jackson County in Missouri will remove a statue of Jackson that currently sits outside of the Jackson County Courthouse located in Kansas City and the Historic Truman Courthouse located in Independence. The moves will happen after a 7-1 vote by the Jackson County Legislature.
In November of 2020, the legislature actually put the future of the statues in the hands of voters, allowing them to choose what should happen to them. More than 72% of residents in the county said they were against the proposal at the time that would’ve removed the statues.
Yet, despite this overwhelming support from residents, the county legislature is going to take matters into their own hands anyway.
The writing may have been on the wall following that vote, though, as Frank White, the county executive, said after the results came in:
“I remain committed in my belief that the statues of a man who owned slaves, caused thousands of Native Americans to die and never stepped foot in our county should be removed from our public facilities.”
Jackson served as president between 1829 and 1837. Some believe he’s a great American hero, while others say some of what he did and stood for clouds his accomplishments.
The former president is widely given credit for orchestrating the victory for American troops over the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
Jackson County itself was organized back on December 15 of 1826, and was named after Jackson, who was serving as a U.S. senator from Tennessee at the time. Before even winning the presidency, Jackson was known across the country because of his accomplishments at the Battle of New Orleans.
Two years ago, Jackson County put a plaque on the Jackson statue that included a reference to Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. It read:
“This statue of Jackson reminds us we are on a path that, in the immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr., bends toward justice. In turn, we must acknowledge past injustices to help us create a greater nation built upon humane policies to light our way and the way of humanity everywhere.”
Over the last few years, people have vandalized the statues, as some people have labeled Jackson a racist. It’s all part of a much larger “woke” movement led by liberals and progressives who are trying to “cancel” historic figures in the past.
It’s happened prominently in the south and at military bases around the country, where statues and references to Confederate leaders and other controversial people from history have been taken down, removed and/or changed completely.
Once the Jackson statues are removed in Missouri, the two separate cities will store them until they figure out what to do with them.
