261Kviews
Twitter Users Share 29 Statues That Are Better Than The Ones Protesters Are Tearing Down
The recent protester-initiated takedown of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol (due to his affiliation with slave trade) has sparked much debate, forcing societies to rethink who they choose to honor through this medium.
This has also inspired the takedown of a number of other statues, namely those of Christopher Columbus, Jefferson Davis, and the Portsmouth Confederate Statue, and there are also demands to remove the Cecil Rhodes statue in the UK as well.
And while this statue purge continues, it’s important to note that not all statues honor people of dubious or debatable reputation, as there are a number of them honoring political leaders, social activists, and all-around good guys in history.
Twitter has recently begun sharing photos of statues honoring people who have genuinely stood for peace, equality, and justice, speaking against structural racism, sexism, homophobia, and many other social issues.
Bored Panda invites you to check out the best picks below. While you’re there, why not vote on your favorites and leave a comment in the comments section below.
This post may include affiliate links.
In April 1985, Danuta Danielsson was 38 years old when her famous reaction to a neo-nazi demonstration by the Nordic Reich Party was captured by Hans Runesson. She had moved to Sweden a few years earlier, having married a Swedish man. Her mother had been at the Majdanek concentration camp, not Auschwitz. Danuta regretted the incident and all that followed. She was battling psychological problems and three years later, at 41, she committed suicide. (https://www.expressen.se/kvallsposten/danuta-fran-polen-var-tanten-med-vaskan/) The statue was not without controversy. (https://mckitterick.tumblr.com/post/184320596645)
I remember reading about him. An amazing and Very modest man. I think there is a show somewhere where they put him in an audience and he didn’t know they had surrounded him with all the hundreds of descendants of the children he had saved.
I've seen that clip. It's always so touching and beautiful the way they all admiringly look at him afterwards.
Load More Replies...The video of him in 1988, meeting the children he saved. <3 Always makes me tear up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFuJAF5F0
For half a century he never mentioned his role to anyone. It wasn't until his wife found a scrapbook in their attic in 1988 containing lists of children's names that she discovered his heroic secret and he finally received the recognition that he truly deserved but never once asked for.
he only died recently, in 2015, at the beautiful age of 106. There's a beautiful video from 1988, where he was in an audience, and unknown to him, he was surrounded by some of children he'd saved. When the host asked "if there's anyone here, who owes their life to this man, would you please stand up".... and dozens of people stand.... makes me ugly-cry every time. THIS IS THE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFuJAF5F0
I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with the fact that that moment was beautiful. They put him in the spotlight there for the sake of a dramatic moment for the camera. :( He clearly (considering that he hid this whole heroic act for decades) wasn't asking for attention and didn't like it in general. I wish he could have met the children he saved differently. They chose a way that would bring out emotions in the strongest possible way while not thinking about what was best to do for the person they were trying to celebrate in the first place. It was selfish. But definitely strong agree on him being a hero. I walk past the monument (https://bit.ly/2MWwIkG) to the parents of the children he saved every time I leave Prague where I live (sir Winton has a separate statue there also) and always stop for a moment to pay my respects.
Load More Replies...I remember watching the tv show. It was That's Life and was presented by Esther Rantzen. He was so very surprised to see so many people who thought of him as the one who saved their lives. https://youtu.be/6_nFuJAF5F0
Thank you for the link! I watched it and it's beautiful and touching
Load More Replies...I've seen that program, when all in the audience are those he saved! He looks almost bewildered to be honored this way! What a great man!
He was actually able to personally meet all the children he rescued a few years ago! An amazing man truly.
Pack a bag - you're going on a feel trip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFuJAF5F0
My comment somehow got repeated 3 times? I only replied to one! Just thought I'd throw that out there in case anyone thinks I'm labouring the point like some picky auld nanny.
He was an amazing man, and I saw the TV show he was featured in too 😍
These are the kind of heroes to be commemorated with statues. Forget the politicians & generals.
Except the mobs are defacing and destroying statues like this , too. See: https://www.jta.org/2020/06/02/united-states/los-angeles-jews-take-stock-after-george-floyd-protests-batter-local-institutions "Graffiti on the walls of a synagogue read “Free Palestine” and “F*** Israel.” A statue of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, was smeared with anti-Semitic slogans. Along with the synagogues, Jewish-owned buildings and stores were defaced, in several cases also with anti-Semitic graffiti. The businesses were looted, too."
Destroying some of the statues I always found didgusting opened a door to knowledge that needs to be shared. This is such a relief.
This is probably in Grenada, the country in the West Indies. Not Granada, the land-locked city in Spain. Though there is a New Granada too, which seems to be a catch-all for the Spanish colonies in the americas.
It was quite interesting reading about the famine. Initially, there was a huge response by the British government to help the famine victims and very large charity drives throughout the British isles. However, after the first year of the famine public sympathy had dried up. Papers were blaming mismanagement in Ireland, underestimating the number of people affected by on going starvation. Politicians were concerned ongoing intervention in the food markets was having more a detrimental then beneficial effect. Public sympathy had turned to hostility as waves of Irish migrants arrived in Britain. So the remaining years of famine the Irish peasants were on their own. It reminded me of the way the EU responded to the migrant crisis in modern times, initially with a huge out pouring of empathy and accepting many millions in, then cold disinterest and rejection.
That's how a true leader should be, not some idiot who can wage a war by typing gibberish on Twitter.
He helped the allies win the war by breaking the Enigma code, but after the war him being gay was the only thing that mattered. Nowadays he is praised for what he has achieved, but his contemporaries condemned him for whom he loved.
I've read her diary when I was 14 and I couldn't do it again. Reading it with the knowledge of what happened was emotionally too stressful for me at that age.
That’s odd.... I know Virginia like the back of my hand and no one has ever told me that this beautiful and meaningful statue existed!
For those who are confused about Spanish and Portuguese mentioned above: Magellan was indeed Portuguese, but he sailed under the Spanish flag.
I wasn't familiar with Miss Davison, so I did research. She was an English suffragette. During one of her protests, she threw herself in front of the King's horse at Epsom Derby. She died four days later.
While Riel did sentence Thomas Scott to execution by firing squad, he himself never carried weapons and never personally killed anyone. He was a leader who led a rebellion, who was then executed for treason.
Reminds me painfully of Marikana South Africa. Imperialism and Capitalism at their best
I did research since I wasn't familiar with Mary Barbour. She was closely associated with the Red Clydeside movement in the early 20th century and especially for her role as the main organiser of the women of Govan who took part in the rent strikes of 1915
Its natural that this woman's story makes people feel uncomfortable. During the 19th century everyone in Britain was told colonialism and missionary work was an unmitigated good, because it allowed people like Slessor to do the things she did. After decolonisation in the 1970s we were told it was a terribly corrupt practice which led to widespread, abuse, exploitation and destruction of native cultures through arrogance. I sought out some opinions from the people who were evangelised and guess what? There was no consensus even among them. One man said "Westernisation was wonderful. No body kills anyone anymore, we can trade for food and clothes" and another said "westernisation was terrible. Everybody has become an alcoholic, no one does proper work. We don't know who we are anymore"
What about someone or people with disabilities? The first ones to be experimented on and exterminated in nazi Germany? The hundreds of thousands of "feeble minded" sent away to camps and sterilized in the United States? The British man who started the Paralympics Games after WWI? I would appreciate that as well as all these amazing ones. :)
Who in the world downvoted this? I think we do need to remember what people with "disabilities" have gone through, and still go through, in their fight to be treated humanely and equally.
Load More Replies...And here's one of the latest (he has about 10 all over Canada!) of Terry Fox in St. John's, Newfoundland. It commemorates the moment he started his Marathon of Hope in 1980 by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean. https://terryfox.org/terrys-story/honours/ terry-fox-...9f2f13.jpg
Go down Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. Lee, Stuart, fellow traitors/rebels are portrayed in glamorous militaristic poses in huge white statues... Arthur Ashe, small bronze statue. Mr. Bonjangles, ditto. No trace of MLK Jr. No statues of a non-white bigger than life. Only white guys who lost a war that, yes, did involve the right to own slavery.... How we present history affects what lessons we learn from it. And that street is a history class of itself.
Fantastic collection! I'd like to add two of my heroes, Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog (College Park, Maryland). They've both dedicated their lives to teaching kids their ABCs and 123s, how to cooperate and share, and that it's okay to be green or purple or even black, via humour and hand puppets. Jim-Henson...e9b851.jpg
For all these a******s saying that they need to look at statues of treasonous slavers every day so they can remember that slavery is wrong, I think we should erect a giant monument glorifying my morning c**p so that they can gaze at it and remember to wash their hands. And if that doesn't make sense to you, then neither should the other statues.
This fisherman stands in our harbor to honor all the men lost at sea. There is a ceremony every year to honor them. fisherman-...b8d9c5.jpg
The Women's memorial monument for the almost 30 000 Boer women and children killed in the English concentration camps in South Africa in 1900's Emily-5ee7...8e5ceb.jpg
Would there be room for Fray Fernando de Montesinos, in Santo Domingo? He was one of the first advocates for equal rights in the New World. fray-5ee80...99bb8a.jpg
I like to add the Hans Christian Andersen Statues(we have a lot here in Denmark) he famous stories are known over the world, and the only book who have been translated more than his is the bible. there is also a really good one in new york of him reading to a duck.
There's a statue- not a very big one though- of Hank Aaron at the ball field here, because he briefly played where I live. Like, very briefly. The issues that he faced weren't issues of genocide or famine, but honestly in our primarily white area I feel like it was a positive thing. Mainly because it's a statue that everyone knows is there, and learning about him have a lot of us a better idea of the fact that racism doesn't take a break because somebody is good at baseball. I know the only reason he's there is because we've very few people who go on to any success- the only one I can think of otherwise is Justin Vernon- but I'm still very happy that he's there.
Thank you, Bored Panda, for featuring so many of the true heroes of the "age of discovery" -- the indigenous peoples that defended their homelands against the real barbarians (the European "explorers") and the kidnapped Africans that rebelled against being enslaved far from their homes. Most of the faux heroes we learn about in school were nothing but ignoble, vicious cutthroats, slave-traders, and looters motivated only by gold.
Near the Viet Nam Wall are 2 statues, one of several troops walking through the bushes, and one to Viet Nam Army nurses. That one is really beautiful.
They should replace every single confederate statue with Robert Smalls. He escaped slavery, outsmarted the entire confederate navy by stealing one of their own ships, and went on to be a military hero for the side that actually won the war. Look him up. He was amazing.
You need more threads like this Bored Panda. I have learnt a lot from this and gone on to look up more about the different people from around the world 👍😊
There's also the statue of the Clinton 12 at the Green McAdoo Cultural Center in Tennessee. They were the first to attend an integrated school in the segregated south. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clinton-12-statue-at-green-mcadoo-cultural-center
I'd like to add one - https://www.macqueenfineart.com/sixteenth-street-baptist-church-public-memorial-sculpture/ The Four Spirits - Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, And Carole Robertson who were in the Baptist Church in Alabama in 1963
Nice to see a post about not just victory over oppressions but an introduction to unknown heroes in a beginning of time struggle
Protesters tore down a statue of Lincoln. The man who freed slaves in the US. Edit-This might have been false
A google search is not showing any indication that is true. There was a statue vandalized in London, as well as false rumors of the Lincoln Memorial being vandalized, but not statues of Lincoln have been torn down as far as I can tell.
Load More Replies...Depends on the context. Saying that your society isn't racist if you get rid of those statues is saying you are not a serial killer if you get rid of your murder weapon.
Load More Replies...Not even reading this racist garbage. Oh, and you misspelled “terrorists”. True journalism is dead. You suck, kid.
Actually, they stole and sold the art to fund genocide. Oh, and the USA still has school boards taht censor books and art permitted in schools. And nobody has statues to the Nazis in Germany. NOBODY is free of the taint of racism, of bigotry, but apparently, rather than accepting that and trying to better the world, you decide to toss out anything that you hope will shut down those whose beliefs and desires are not your own.
Load More Replies...Wow, you really are filth, aren’t you? So afraid, just like the tiny coward in the WH.
Load More Replies...How does removing a statue equate to muffling history away? In order for a statue to have meaning you need to know the history behind it, so why use a disgraceful part of said history to represent it? I seriously doubt anyone would find it appropriate to have a statue of Hitler erected to represent the Holocaust, so why is it appropriate to have statues of slave traders?
Load More Replies...I often have to remind myself (especially since 2016, I live in the US) that bigots are taught bigotry. It's not innate; it can be unlearned with effort, empathy, and experience.
Load More Replies...You're right, the confederacy was also fighting for white supremacy.
Load More Replies...You are correct. It is wrong to identify a rioter as a protester. It is misleading as to the person's actions and implies that they have a right to commit the crime.
Load More Replies...There is a big difference in placing these statues in museums and teaching people about the horrendous acts that they committed, and having their statues on honoured places in cities. You don't see statues of Adolf Hitler in Germany, yet no one has forgotten his historical significance
Load More Replies...What about someone or people with disabilities? The first ones to be experimented on and exterminated in nazi Germany? The hundreds of thousands of "feeble minded" sent away to camps and sterilized in the United States? The British man who started the Paralympics Games after WWI? I would appreciate that as well as all these amazing ones. :)
Who in the world downvoted this? I think we do need to remember what people with "disabilities" have gone through, and still go through, in their fight to be treated humanely and equally.
Load More Replies...And here's one of the latest (he has about 10 all over Canada!) of Terry Fox in St. John's, Newfoundland. It commemorates the moment he started his Marathon of Hope in 1980 by dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean. https://terryfox.org/terrys-story/honours/ terry-fox-...9f2f13.jpg
Go down Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. Lee, Stuart, fellow traitors/rebels are portrayed in glamorous militaristic poses in huge white statues... Arthur Ashe, small bronze statue. Mr. Bonjangles, ditto. No trace of MLK Jr. No statues of a non-white bigger than life. Only white guys who lost a war that, yes, did involve the right to own slavery.... How we present history affects what lessons we learn from it. And that street is a history class of itself.
Fantastic collection! I'd like to add two of my heroes, Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog (College Park, Maryland). They've both dedicated their lives to teaching kids their ABCs and 123s, how to cooperate and share, and that it's okay to be green or purple or even black, via humour and hand puppets. Jim-Henson...e9b851.jpg
For all these a******s saying that they need to look at statues of treasonous slavers every day so they can remember that slavery is wrong, I think we should erect a giant monument glorifying my morning c**p so that they can gaze at it and remember to wash their hands. And if that doesn't make sense to you, then neither should the other statues.
This fisherman stands in our harbor to honor all the men lost at sea. There is a ceremony every year to honor them. fisherman-...b8d9c5.jpg
The Women's memorial monument for the almost 30 000 Boer women and children killed in the English concentration camps in South Africa in 1900's Emily-5ee7...8e5ceb.jpg
Would there be room for Fray Fernando de Montesinos, in Santo Domingo? He was one of the first advocates for equal rights in the New World. fray-5ee80...99bb8a.jpg
I like to add the Hans Christian Andersen Statues(we have a lot here in Denmark) he famous stories are known over the world, and the only book who have been translated more than his is the bible. there is also a really good one in new york of him reading to a duck.
There's a statue- not a very big one though- of Hank Aaron at the ball field here, because he briefly played where I live. Like, very briefly. The issues that he faced weren't issues of genocide or famine, but honestly in our primarily white area I feel like it was a positive thing. Mainly because it's a statue that everyone knows is there, and learning about him have a lot of us a better idea of the fact that racism doesn't take a break because somebody is good at baseball. I know the only reason he's there is because we've very few people who go on to any success- the only one I can think of otherwise is Justin Vernon- but I'm still very happy that he's there.
Thank you, Bored Panda, for featuring so many of the true heroes of the "age of discovery" -- the indigenous peoples that defended their homelands against the real barbarians (the European "explorers") and the kidnapped Africans that rebelled against being enslaved far from their homes. Most of the faux heroes we learn about in school were nothing but ignoble, vicious cutthroats, slave-traders, and looters motivated only by gold.
Near the Viet Nam Wall are 2 statues, one of several troops walking through the bushes, and one to Viet Nam Army nurses. That one is really beautiful.
They should replace every single confederate statue with Robert Smalls. He escaped slavery, outsmarted the entire confederate navy by stealing one of their own ships, and went on to be a military hero for the side that actually won the war. Look him up. He was amazing.
You need more threads like this Bored Panda. I have learnt a lot from this and gone on to look up more about the different people from around the world 👍😊
There's also the statue of the Clinton 12 at the Green McAdoo Cultural Center in Tennessee. They were the first to attend an integrated school in the segregated south. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clinton-12-statue-at-green-mcadoo-cultural-center
I'd like to add one - https://www.macqueenfineart.com/sixteenth-street-baptist-church-public-memorial-sculpture/ The Four Spirits - Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, And Carole Robertson who were in the Baptist Church in Alabama in 1963
Nice to see a post about not just victory over oppressions but an introduction to unknown heroes in a beginning of time struggle
Protesters tore down a statue of Lincoln. The man who freed slaves in the US. Edit-This might have been false
A google search is not showing any indication that is true. There was a statue vandalized in London, as well as false rumors of the Lincoln Memorial being vandalized, but not statues of Lincoln have been torn down as far as I can tell.
Load More Replies...Depends on the context. Saying that your society isn't racist if you get rid of those statues is saying you are not a serial killer if you get rid of your murder weapon.
Load More Replies...Not even reading this racist garbage. Oh, and you misspelled “terrorists”. True journalism is dead. You suck, kid.
Actually, they stole and sold the art to fund genocide. Oh, and the USA still has school boards taht censor books and art permitted in schools. And nobody has statues to the Nazis in Germany. NOBODY is free of the taint of racism, of bigotry, but apparently, rather than accepting that and trying to better the world, you decide to toss out anything that you hope will shut down those whose beliefs and desires are not your own.
Load More Replies...Wow, you really are filth, aren’t you? So afraid, just like the tiny coward in the WH.
Load More Replies...How does removing a statue equate to muffling history away? In order for a statue to have meaning you need to know the history behind it, so why use a disgraceful part of said history to represent it? I seriously doubt anyone would find it appropriate to have a statue of Hitler erected to represent the Holocaust, so why is it appropriate to have statues of slave traders?
Load More Replies...I often have to remind myself (especially since 2016, I live in the US) that bigots are taught bigotry. It's not innate; it can be unlearned with effort, empathy, and experience.
Load More Replies...You're right, the confederacy was also fighting for white supremacy.
Load More Replies...You are correct. It is wrong to identify a rioter as a protester. It is misleading as to the person's actions and implies that they have a right to commit the crime.
Load More Replies...There is a big difference in placing these statues in museums and teaching people about the horrendous acts that they committed, and having their statues on honoured places in cities. You don't see statues of Adolf Hitler in Germany, yet no one has forgotten his historical significance
Load More Replies...