A likeness of Cecil Rhodes, the controversial Victorian imperialist who supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa is seen in Oxford, England. Photos / AP
A likeness of Cecil Rhodes, the controversial Victorian imperialist who supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa is seen in Oxford, England. Photos / AP
Black Lives Matter supporters have drawn up a "hit list" of dozens of statues after Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said controversial monuments should be removed to avoid causing offence.
Statues of leading historical figures including Sir Francis Drake, Nancy Astor, Christopher Columbus and William Gladstone should be toppled "for celebrating slavery and racism", campaigners said.
It came as councils and museums rushed to remove contentious statues after protesters threw a figure of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, into Bristol Harbour on Monday.
More than 100 Labour councils announced wide-ranging reviews of controversial landmarks, while Khan said he "hoped" a new commission for diversity in the public realm would recommend the removal of memorials that "don't accurately reflect our values".
This could include the names of "certain institutions" thought to include bodies such as the Tate galleries and Guy's Hospital, whose founders profited from slave labour.
The street sign for Black Boy Lane in north London.
Murals, street art, street names - thought to include Black Boy Lane in West Green, north London - statues and other memorials will also come under scrutiny, he added.
Khan suggested that London had "an uncomfortable truth" with historical links to slavery.
"Our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored - this cannot continue," he told the BBC.
London Assembly Tories hit out at the Mayor's plans, accusing him of "declaring war" on monuments.
"Instead of virtue-signalling and starting a divisive debate, Sadiq Khan should focus on his job," said Susan Hall, an assembly member.
Boris Johnson told his Cabinet that protesters who break social distancing or attack public property or police "will face the full force of the law".
However, anti-racism activists published a list of 60 statues, memorial plaques and monuments that "need to be removed so that Britain can finally face the truth about its past".
Graffiti that reads "Son of slaver and Colonialist Profiteer" has appeared on the statue of Robert Dundas 2nd Viscount Melville in Melville Street, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Names on the list include historical figures accused of having "responsibility for colonial violence". Astor, the first female MP, was "an anti-Semite and a Nazi supporter", the list says, while it criticises Drake for his involvement in the slave trade, Columbus for his role in colonising America and Gladstone, the Liberal prime minister, for his family's slave-owning past.
Other names listed are Charles II, Oliver Cromwell and Lord Nelson.
Perhaps the most unexpected inclusion on the list is a monument in Newcastle to Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, the former prime minister whose government oversaw the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833.
His monument should be removed because "reparations were paid to white ex-slave owners instead of black ex-slaves", the activists say.
The interactive map, called Topple the Racists, was set up by the Stop Trump Coalition in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and invites people to add their own candidates for removal.
Born around 1746, Milligan was responsible for the construction of the West India Docks, which became the global trading hub of London, and oversaw his family's two sugar plantations in Jamaica, which were worked by more than 500 slaves.
The Canal and River Trust, which owns the land, said it "recognised the wishes of the local community concerning the statue of Robert Milligan" in having it removed.
A petition to remove the statue was launched by Ehtasham Haque, a Tower Hamlets councillor, and received more than 1000 signatures.
He said the "very existence of Robert Milligan's statue to glorify slave trading in 2020" was "an insult to humanity".
— Hannah Rose Woods (@hannahrosewoods) June 8, 2020
In Plymouth, councillors announced that a public square in the city centre named after Sir John Hawkins, the Elizabethan mariner and slave trader, would be renamed.
A separate petition was raised for the removal of statues of Drake in Plymouth and Tavistock.
In Edinburgh, city leaders announced that a plaque would be installed at a monument dedicated to Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, who delayed the abolition of slavery.
UPDATE: The statue of slave trader Robert Milligan has now been removed from West India Quay.
It’s a sad truth that much of our wealth was derived from the slave trade - but this does not have to be celebrated in our public spaces. #BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/ca98capgnQ
Viscount Melville (1771-1851) Edinburgh Activists defaced a statue of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville. He was the son of Henry Dundas, who worked to delay the abolition of slavery
Black Boy Lane West Green, London From the mid-16th to mid-19th century, a total of 61 streets in London were named Black Boy Lane - this is the only one left in the capital
Grey's monument Newcastle Earl Grey was the prime minister who oversaw the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, but paid reparations to slave owners
Thomas Guy (1644-1724) Southwark, London The founder of Guy's Hospital made his fortune through ownership of shares in the South Sea Company, which sold slaves to Spanish colonies
Tate galleries Southbank, London Benefactor Henry Tate was too young to be a slave owner but the family's sugar business had links to the trade
Robert Milligan (1746-1809) London Docklands The merchant and plantation owner who was the driving force behind the creation of the West India Docks. It was removed yesterday.
