Earlier this week, as we reported, the statue destroyers announced they were planning on pulling down a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C.

“Thursday at 7 PM, we tearing this motherfucker down!”
(loud cheering) pic.twitter.com/hLTqlhocZR

— Richie🎥McG🍿 (@RichieMcGinniss) June 24, 2020

But this wasn’t just any Lincoln statue. It’s called the “Freedman’s Memorial” because it commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation and freed slaves paid for it to honor Lincoln. Frederick Douglass even gave the oration at its dedication.

From WJLA:

According to the National Park Service, which maintains the park, an African American woman named Charlotte Scott of Virginia used the first $5 she earned in freedom to kick off a fundraising campaign as a way of paying homage to Lincoln after he was assassinated in 1865. [….]

“The campaign for the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln, as it was to be known, was not the only effort of the time to build a monument to Lincoln; however, as the only one soliciting contributions exclusively from those who had most directly benefited from Lincoln’s act of emancipation, it had a special appeal,” NPS says.

Listen to Marcia Cole explain the statue.

"That man is not kneeling on two knees with his head bowed. He is in the act of getting up."

Listen to this beautiful soul.pic.twitter.com/jfOoO8PfWS

— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) June 24, 2020

“I’m here to speak on behalf of the legacy of Charlotte Scott,” said Marcia Cole, a member of the Female RE-Enactors of Distinction (FREED) who portrays Scott. FREED is an auxiliary organization of the African American Civil War Museum.

“I understand there’s a big campaign trying to raise money to either take it down or mend it, and I say ‘no’ on behalf of Ms. Charlotte,” she said. “People tend to think of that figure as being servile but on second look you will see something different, perhaps. That man is not kneeling on two knees with his head bowed. He is in the act of getting up. And his head is up, not bowed, because he’s looking forward to a future of freedom.”

She also notes how the shackle is broken and that the man is holding the end of a broken chain. “He has taken his freedom,” she says.

So what happened last night? Were they able to pull it down?

Pro tip? When you’re looking to break federal law, don’t give the authorities a heads up.

Fencing went up around the statue after the threat.

🚨REPORT FROM THE LINCOLN STATUE TEAR DOWN PARTY🚨

– Massive barricades
– Massive thunderstorm
– tiny tiny protest

God saves Abraham, again pic.twitter.com/raFjsWw9FA

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 25, 2020

Now the statue looks like this: pic.twitter.com/Rk4hOZOPDv

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 25, 2020

Not too many people showed up, although there was this uninformed woman who needs to have a conversation with Marcia Cole about history.

Protester says she is here to tear down Lincoln statue because Lincoln did not want to free the slaves and actually hated black people.

“Lincoln never cared about black people. Lincoln had slaves himself.”

(This is of course False)

A product of our education system, America: pic.twitter.com/X3HQIFXz2P

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 25, 2020

She may have the opportunity to have conversation.

The group that wants to take it down promised to come back on Friday at 6 p.m. However, a group of historians including Cole will also be there at the same time, giving a “community discussion” on the history of the statue so people understand it.

That’s likely to be an interesting discussion.