Chicago To Review 41 Potentially ‘Offensive’ Works Of Art Including Statues Honoring Lincoln, Washington, Grant

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday that the city would begin a “public process” of reviewing 41 “statues, plaques, and works of art” honoring potentially “offensives” historical figures, including statues of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, And Ulysses S. Grant.

The announcement marks the conclusion of the “Chicago Monuments Project,” which began over the summer after vandals attempted to fell a statue of Christopher Columbus in Chicago’s Grant Park (a statue which was later “temporarily removed” in the middle of the night). The project reviewed 500 of the city’s public monuments “with an eye toward identifying those that were offensive, problematic, or not representative of [the] city’s values of equity and justice.”