A petition on the website change.org is pushing to remove a bust of U.S. President George Washington from the Watsonville City Plaza area. The reason given is Washington’s ownership of slaves and supposed support for slavery. The group backing the petition, called Revolunas, says that “Washington owned 100s of Slaves during his lifetime” and that he “is the epitome of White Supremacy!”
What isn’t said it that before his death, Washington freed all the slaves he owned and made financial provisions for them to be cared for. Other slaves were owned before their marriage by Mrs. Martha Washington and George could not free those.
The anti-slavery push comes as multiple statues and symbols of the Confederacy and other figures of American history are being called for removal across the nation in light of the recent Black Lives Matter protests.
