In PBS interview with Charlie Rose, activist Al Sharpton called for the federal government to cease maintaining the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC. The monument, which sits at the foot of the Tidal Basin, honors Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States who penned the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Sharpton explains at the 15:25 mark that because Jefferson owned slaves, his monument shouldn’t be cared for with taxpayer funds.
“People need to understand that when people were enslaved and robbed of even the right to marry and had forced sex with their slave masters, that this is personal to us,” Sharpton said. “When you look at the fact that public monuments are supported by public funds, you’re asking me to subsidize the insult to my family.”
In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville over the weekend, leftists have been calling for monuments of slave holders and to the Confederacy to be torn down in cities across the country.
