THEODORE ROOSEVELT STATUE TO BE REMOVED FROM MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
A statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt will be removed from the entrance to New York City's American Museum of Natural History, where it has stood since 1940. The bronze statue shows Roosevelt on horseback with an African man on one side and a Native American man on the other. Mayor Bill de Blasio said yesterday that because the city owns the building and property, the museum went to the city to discuss removing the statue, quote, "because it explicitly depicts black and indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior." De Blasio said the city supports the museum's request.
However, museum president Ellen Futter made clear to the New York Times that their issue isn't with Roosevelt himself, but with the statue's depiction. Roosevelt's great-grandson Theodore Roosevelt IV is on the museum's board of trustees, and supports the decision, saying, "The composition of the 'Equestrian' statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelt's legacy."