A statue of former US president Abraham Lincoln with a
kneeling Black man has been removed by the authorities at the order of Boston
Mayor, AFP reported on Tuesday.

The statue was removed after complaints were raised by
activists for its demeaning depiction of black people, which was followed by an
order by the city’s arts council which ruled last June in favor of its
removal.

“The decision for removal acknowledges the statue’s
role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black
Americans in shaping the nation’s fight for freedom,” the mayor’s office
said in a statement.

A petition launched by a local artist had gathered 12,000
signatures to remove the statue, entitled the “Emancipation Group”, AFP
reported.

The statue, erected in Boston in 1879, depicted a decently
clothed Lincoln with near naked Black man. It was a replica of a similar statue
in Washington DC installed in 1876.

Lincoln, graced with monikers of “Honest Abe” and the “Great
Emancipator”, was hailed through the statue for his bulldozing the 13th amendment
which made slavery illegal in the country in 1863.

The edict was pronounced in
the middle of Civil War, waged by the secessionist southern states which were
not in favor of slavery’s abolition.

Also read: Statue of Confederate general Lee removed from US Capitol

In the wake of massive race demonstrations this summer over
the killing of a Black man by police in Minneapolis, statues of Christopher
Colombus, Theodore Roosevelt and the secessionist general Robert E Lee — have
been removed or vandalized, including in Boston, New York, and Washington, AFP
wrote.