KANSAS CITY, Mo. — City workers added a plaque to the Andrew Jackson statue that stands outside the Jackson County Courthouse in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
The plaque was added to provide context to the statue, and acknowledge that Jackson was a slave owner and also supported the Indian Removal Act that forced Native Americans from their homes so that white settlers could live on the land.
The plaque reads in part, “This statue of Jackson reminds us we are on a path that, in the immortal words of Martin Luther King, Jr., bends towards justice. In turn, we must acknowledge past injustices to help us create a greater nation built upon humane policies to light our way and the way of humanity everywhere.”
The statue of the nation’s seventh president outside the downtown courthouse was vandalized last summer. There was also an intense public debate about statues honoring Confederate generals and slave owners, including Jackson, that stand around the Kansas City metro.
In November, Jackson County residents voted to let statues of former President Andrew Jackson remain outside the county’s two courthouses.
