Protesters vow to tear down Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation memorial Thursday night.

Protestors gathered at Emancipation park earlier this week to announce they plan on taking down the statue of Abraham Lincoln Thursday night.

From Daily Wire

Protesters calling for it to be taken down say that the former slaves who paid for the statue had no say in how it would be built and that even in its unveiling, abolitionist Fredrick Douglas said it ‘perpetuated negative stereotypes about African Americans’. 

The crowd chanted ‘No Justice, No Peace’ as the woman was told to stop speaking. 

‘He freed the slaves for political advancement,’ one speaker said, according to WUSA9 journalist Tom Dempsey. 

‘Not because he cared, not because he wanted to. 

‘And the thing is that when we freed ourselves, we had seven years of progress, the best seven years for black people in the entire American history’. 

Police in riot gear were pictured standing in a group on the outskirts of the protest but no run-ins were reported.  

‘We’re kicking off the revolution with a series of shutting down the Capitol events and bringing attention to the injustices in the black community starting with Lincoln Park, a statue that embodies the racial undertones of black people being inferior to white people,’ The Freedom Neighborhood said in a social media post. 

‘WE WANT THIS STATUE GONE!’

 The group added that they would not be working with police to enact the change ‘nor will we seek any relationship with them’. 

‘In order to create change, we will do so by any means necessary. If you want a revolution, it won’t happen by being peaceful,’ the group wrote. 

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton has also said she wants the statue removed and will introduce legislation to do so. 

‘Because Lincoln Park is National Park Service (NPS) land, I will work with the NPS to see whether NPS has the authority to remove the statue without an act of Congress, and if so, we will seek its removal without a bill,’ said Norton in a statement . 

‘This statue has been controversial from the start. It is time it was placed in a museum.’ 

The protestors said they will not just take up space in Emancipation Square but that they will go to the rich people’s homes and take what is theirs. It’s ‪not clear what they meant by that. Part of the plan seems to divide their efforts and make as much damage as they can.

Source: Protesters vow to tear down Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation memorial