Frank White says minority groups should have had a say about Andrew Jackson statues
Over the objections of County Executive Frank White, the Jackson County legislature voted Monday to affix historical plaques to the statues of President Andrew Jackson outside the Kansas City courthouse and the Historic Truman Courthouse in Independence.
White said he hopes that before those plaques go up, the legislature will get some outside opinions from blacks and Native Americans on wording that calls attention to Jackson’s troubling past as a slaveholder and his enforcement of cruel policies toward Indian tribes in the 1830s.
It bothered him that no African Americans or Native Americans were involved in deciding on the proposed wording for the plaques that point out his racist history. It was drafted, instead, by County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and a top aide, Michael Mansur, both of whom are white.
“I’m not opposed to the idea. I don’t think this is the way to do it,” White told legislators before they voted.
He said he was shocked and offended that Baker didn’t talk to him about her proposal before she took it to the legislature.
“That should have been her first call,” White said. Not only is he the top official responsible for county buildings, White said, he is the county’s first African-American chief executive and spent part of his childhood in the segregated South.
“I’ve seen discrimination,” he said.
He said he was disappointed that he didn’t know about Baker’s proposal until he read about it in Sunday’s newspaper.
Legislator Jalen Anderson, who is biracial, sponsored the resolution in support of Baker’s proposal. He opposed delaying a decision.
Baker told legislators that the wording that she and Mansur came up with was only meant to be a proposal and she was willing to have others suggest changes. But she didn’t want that to turn into a months-long process.
Several legislators agreed. In hopes of avoiding a prolonged community discussion that would almost certainly include some suggestions for getting rid of the statues entirely, legislators Dan Tarwater, Crystal Williams, Jeanie Lauer, Tony Miller and chairwoman Theresa Galvin voted along with Anderson to go with Baker’s script as is.
Like White, legislators Ron Finley and Scott Burnett thought the decision was being rushed and voted no. Charlie Franklin abstained.
Baker said she and Mansur tried to use neutral language that balanced Jackson’s status as a hero of the War of 1812 and seventh president of the United States, with the fact that he owned slaves and signed the act in 1830 that began the forced removal of 60,000 Native Americans from the Southeast to federal lands west of the Mississippi River that was designated as Indian Territory. Many died.
“This is not meant to be super controversial,” Baker said.
But she felt it was important to acknowledge Jackson’s history on the two statues, neither of which includes any information about him.
Unless something changes, here is what will be written on the plaques:
“In 1826, the Missouri State Legislature named this county after the hero of the Battle of New Orleans in
the War of 1812 — Andrew Jackson — nearly three years before he became the nation’s seventh
President. Almost two centuries later, 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 entire
Cherokee nation.
This statue of Jackson reminds us we are on a path that in the immortal words of Martin Luther King,
Jr. bends toward justice. In turn, we must acknowledge past injustices 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.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 4:28 PM.
