By Lily Goldberg

A group of protestors bearing signs such as “Teddy Deserves Better” and “Trump 2020” gathered outside the Museum of Natural History on 79th Street and Central Park West on Sunday to protest the city’s decision to remove the statue of Teddy Roosevelt. They were met with counterprotesters fighting to remove the statue.

Mayor De Blasio announced last Sunday that after 80 years on the Upper West Side, “Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt,” would be coming down per the request of the museum (New York City owns the statue and thus controls what to do with it).

The protest, titled “Defend Teddy Roosevelt!” was organized by the New York Young Republican Club, who spread the word about the gathering on Twitter and Eventbrite. The protest was eventually counter-protested by a group of Black Lives Matter activists who learned of the New York Young Republican Club’s presence through @justiceforgeorgenyc, a popular Instagram account that provides information about Black Lives Matter protests around New York City and which rallied its followers to the museum for solidarity. The protest began around noon with the Young Republicans and their affiliates stationed in front of the statue and counter-protestors situated across the street in front of Central Park. By 2 p.m., the Black Lives Matter contingent had moved across the street to the right side of the statue, where chants of “George Floyd” were interrupted by the other side yelling “Marxist dykes!”

The statue, a work by sculptor James Earle Fraser, displays the 26th president seated on horseback while an Indigenous man and African man flank him on foot, carrying his guns. The work has long been controversial because of its hierarchical composition, which places Roosevelt above his fellow men.

Fraser’s statue has been the subject of protests for almost 50 years, from when young Indigenous activists were first arrested for covering Roosevelt in red paint in 1971 to the 2017 “Anti-Columbus Day” protest held by organizing group Decolonize This Place. A mayoral advisory commission was split on whether it ought to be removed i 2018.

The museum even held an exhibit called “Addressing the Statue,” which provides clarification about the original intentions of the statue (for example, Fraser stated the figures astride Roosevelt may be allegorical representations of the continents of America and Africa or symbols of Roosevelt’s “friendliness to all races”). In light of the recent protests, however, and an instance on June 13th in which paint was once again flung on the statue, the museum reversed course, stating that “in the current moment, it is abundantly clear that this approach [recontextualization] is not sufficient.”

Some protestors with the Young Republicans, including Ooana Trien, a Hell’s Kitchen resident who describes herself as a “moderate,” claimed the museum had caved to pressure from left-leaning activists in deciding to remove the statue. “In my opinion, this being decided by a mob is an awful precedent,” said Trien. Trien, who attended Tisch School of the Arts and has rallied before to protect works of art she believes have artistic merit, objects to the statue’s removal because she views the decision as an act of artistic censorship that could have far-reaching consequences. “We could end up back in the 90s trying to protect local artists, said Trien. “No museum should ever be coerced into making a decision of any kind.”

Most protestors, however, opposed removing the statue not because they admired its artistry but because they believed that removing the statue would constitute an act of inappropriate historical revisionism. One protestor, Najat, who declined to give her surname, stated, “This is a history museum. History itself is precarious. Who decides what’s good history and what’s bad history?” Another simply held up a sign that said “Those who start with destroying monuments finish with torture, mass murder, genocide.”

On the other side, protestors handed out free bottled water and held signs reading “Even my 7 yr old nephew knows these statues must come down!” Maggie, an Upper West Sider who heard about the protest from @justiceforgeorgenyc, stated “I’m glad there’s some people out supporting taking the statue down. I think the statue itself is racist and I think we can honor Roosevelt’s contribution in other ways.”

But though the issue of Black representation in art and the Black Lives Matter movement are intimately interwoven, some activists who heard about the protest through @justiceforgeorge showed up for solidarity with Black Lives Matter but were privately conflicted on whether the statue should indeed come down. Tim, an Upper East Sider, explained that accusations that Roosevelt was a racist didn’t tell the whole story, and that Roosevelt was in fact “the OG Black Lives Matter ally.” “For me it’s a weird dynamic because he’s an empowering person,” he said. Roosevelt had this highly criticized conversation with Booker T. Washington [referencing Washington’s dinner with the president at the White House in 1901, which prompted outrage from southern politicians] and I think there’s a desire to whitewash this history.”

However, John W., an Upper West Sider who heard about the protest through @justiceforgeorgenyc and joined on the Black Lives Matter side, believes that while Roosevelt’s own history is indeed complex, the statue honors a certain vision of Roosevelt rather than honoring his complexities. “I’m open to statues that tell a story,” said John. “Even if Teddy Roosevelt is a product of his time, we certainly had abolitionists even before that time too,” said John. “So whatever he chose to be or chose to say or act were his choices. I’m open to statues, but statues that show that at the end of the day slaves were freed or there were civil rights.”

De Blasio has not announced a timeline for removing the statue, but keep watching the West Side Rag for updates about it.