Should Andrew Jackson’s racist history be noted at two Jackson County courthouses?
It troubles Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker that, on their way to seek justice in the downtown courthouse, victims, jurors and defendants alike pass the statue of a man who owned slaves and treated Native Americans as subhuman.
“It just struck me in the past year that we need to address that,” Baker said.
So on Monday, the county legislature will consider a resolution that calls for placing plaques next to the statue and a smaller one just like it in Independence to note Jackson’s treatment of African Americans and Native Americans in the 19th Century.
Legislator Jalen Anderson is sponsoring the resolution and believes it will pass easily.
“I haven’t had any pushback from any legislators I’ve talked to,” Anderson said. “It looks like it won’t have any opposition.”
Like Thomas Jefferson, another slaveholder and former president, Jackson has become a problematic figure in recent years, especially on the political left.
Iowa Democrats, for instance, famously renamed the party’s annual fundraiser and quadrennial pre-presidential caucus cattle call. The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner is now the Liberty and Justice Celebration.
Missouri Dems rebranded their similarly named annual dinner, choosing instead to honor a failed haberdasher from Independence who went onto make something of himself.
But what to do about Jackson County, which Harry Truman presided over before ascending to the U.S. Senate and the White House? The county is stuck with the name the state legislature bestowed upon it 194 years ago, honoring the pre-presidential Jackson for throttling the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
However, Baker felt some context was needed for visitors to the downtown Kansas City courthouse and the Historic Truman Courthouse at the center of Independence Square. Outside both buildings a bronze, bare-headed Jackson is astride a horse in a heroic pose: sword at his side, reins in one hand, a telescope in the other.
The downtown Jackson has stood in the plaza outside the north entrance of the courthouse since the building opened in 1934. As county government’s chief executive during the building’s construction, Truman met the sculptor, Charles Keck, and they became longtime friends.
Keck later gave then-President Truman a half-size version of the original, which Truman donated to the county in 1949 for display outside the Independence courthouse. The building, which was renamed in Truman’s honor, no longer hosts trials but is now home to county offices.
Baker said it bothered her that crime victims, jurors and others involved with the criminal justice system were walking into the downtown courthouse each weekday past the statue of a man with Jackson’s troubling history. And yet there was nothing to acknowledge that today’s society recognizes that everyone deserves equal treatment under the law.
Might a minority visitors wonder if they would get a fair shake inside?
Suggesting that the statues be removed would only create controversy, she said. But who could argue with plaques that simply stated the facts?
She and her communications director, Michael Mansur, spent three months working on the proposed wording , seeking guidance from historians and others to ensure the right tone.
In addition to acknowledging Jackson’s greatest military achievement and rise to high office, the proposed language points out aspects of his past without condemning him.
“He was a man of his time,” Anderson said.
But times change, he said, as the proposed language for the plaques explains.
“Almost two centuries later,” it reads in part, ”we hold a broader, more inclusive view of our nation. Jackson’s ownership of slaves and his support for the Indian Removal Act are part of his history. The Act forced Native Americans from their home territories so that white settlers could live there and triggered the Trail of Tears, a 1,000-mile march resulting in the death of thousands, including an estimated one-quarter of the Cherokee Nation.”
It goes onto say that the statues are a reminder this nation is on a path that “bends toward justice,” as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said.
“In turn, we must acknowledge past injustice to help us create a greater nation built upon humane policies to light our way and the way of humanity everywhere. You may be entering this revered building today in a pursuit of truth or justice. Welcome. Your own history is still being written.”
Baker said she is fine if others have suggestions to edit the proposed wording.
The legislature will take up the matter near the end of Monday’s agenda. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. on the second floor of the downtown courthouse.
