The city of Chicago will spend $6.8 million in grant money on eight new monuments, including a memorial for police torture victims, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Monday.
The effort is an outgrowth of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s monuments commission, which she launched amid controversy over Christopher Columbus statues and hailed as a step toward racial healing and historical reckoning. Funding for the monuments project is largely being provided by the Mellon Foundation, though Johnson said the city would contribute an additional $1 million.
“Today’s commitment will certainly help support the city of Chicago as we seek to heal,” Johnson said.
Planned monuments include the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial, dealing with the dark legacy of police misconduct left by disgraced late police commander and electroshock torturer Jon Burge. Another is to be called A Long Walk Home, dedicated to police shooting victim Rekia Boyd. Also planned is a commemoration of the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, as well as monuments that honor labor leader Mother Jones, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, early settler Jean Baptiste Point DuSable and Pilsen Latinas.
One of the projects is called Other Washingtons, recognizing those aside from America’s first president. Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Erin Harkey noted that “Washington is the Blackest name in the country.”
Amid spirited public debate about race in America in 2020, Columbus came under renewed scrutiny as statues across the U.S. were pulled down and local governments stopped celebrating the holiday in his name. Though Chicago was one of the cities where the monuments were lifted, Lightfoot at first resisted their removal and insisted afterward that the Grant Park statue should eventually return.
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