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She stated that everything involving racism should be taken down.
Amidst the popular outcry driven by the murder of African American George Floyd, the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Wednesday for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol.
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"The halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy. The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation," she wrote.
This measure would involve a dozen statues displayed in the halls of the Washington Capitol. Among them are Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens', president and vice president of the Confederate States of America, who were later charged with treason. Pelosi already called for the removal of the statues in 2017.
The statues which fill the halls of Congress should reflect our highest ideals as Americans. Today, I am once again calling for the removal from the U.S. Capitol of the 11 statues representing Confederate soldiers and officials. These statues pay homage to hate, not heritage.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 10, 2020
The U.S House speaker also quoted Stephens who in 1861 stated that "the Negro is not equal to the white man; that the subordination of slavery to the superior race is its natural and normal condition."
In response, Pelosi declared that "monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals."
All over U.S. statues and monuments have been taken down. Also, President Donald Trump refused to accept demands to change several military bases' names. A day before, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the city may remove statues of imperialist figures, a purge to celebrate diversity and legacies.
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