OPINION:
A committee has suggested that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser have the names of the Founding Fathers removed from several buildings, streets and places in Washington due to the connection of those “historical namesakes” to slavery and oppression.
The supreme irony here is that before American history and government were removed from curricula, people learned about those dichotomies in school. They were subjects for instruction and discussion. Now students are being fed leftist propaganda instead. Many of the Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, spoke and wrote about the hypocrisy of demanding freedom while having slaves. Yes, this is the same Jefferson who had slaves and seven children by his slave concubine, Sally Hemmings.
The Founding Fathers knew they had put off that issue when both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted. What they may not have realized was that they had provided the tools for the future successes of the Civil Rights movement. At the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted as much when he said that Black America had come to cash the promissory note of freedom which the Founding Fathers made to all Americans when the Declaration and Constitution were penned.
Dr. King, probably the most accomplished Civil Rights leader ever, also had serious personal failings. Should we then suggest that a plaque referencing these failings be added to his monument? Should we suggest that all of the buildings, streets and programs named for him be renamed? Historical figures were of their time. It is wrong and dangerous to judge them by today’s standards.
HESSIE L. HARRIS
Silver Spring, Md.
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