The History Behind the Teddy Roosevelt Statue Being Removed in New York

A statue of former president Theodore Roosevelt riding a horse will be removed from the entrance to New York City's American Museum of Natural History, amid criticisms that it's problematic and racially insensitive. The issues with the piece are clear: Roosevelt is riding a horse, while a Native American and African American man stand on either side of the horse, below Roosevelt.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's office announced the impending change on Sunday. "The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior," the statement reads. "The city supports the museum's request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue."

The statue's origins make it clear that the two men of color are not representative of real people at all. Rather, they're designed to communicate something about Roosevelt and America's history at large.

"The architect of the memorial specified a 'heroic group' of three men, while other sources at the time describe the two men with Roosevelt as gun bearers," reads the statue's page on the Museum of Natural History website. "The sculptor wrote that the two men were guides and could be seen to stand for 'Roosevelt's friendliness to all races.' The meaning of these figures is complicated and hard to untangle."

Dubbed the Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt, the statue was designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser, and it took its prominent place outside the museum in 1940, per CNN. According to the museum's website, Fraser said the statue could be seen to represent Roosevelt's "friendliness to all races," but he envisioned the two figures as guides standing in for "the two continents of Africa and America."

While the statue was obviously erected as tribute to Roosevelt, who also served as the Governor of New York, it's long been controversial because of the way the former president is positioned above the other men.

In a page on its website headlined "Addressing the statue," the museum acknowledged the troubling dynamics at work in the statue, and people's discomfort with its design.

"The statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing," the post reads. "To understand the statue, we must recognize our country's enduring legacy of racial discrimination—as well as Roosevelt's troubling views on race. We must also acknowledge the Museum's own imperfect history. Such an effort does not excuse the past but it can create a foundation for honest, respectful, open dialogue."

Back in 2017, de Blasio's office weighed whether or not to eliminate the statue, as part of a larger effort to do away with problematic monuments. The mayor's office determined, though, that the Roosevelt statue should remain and that more context about the statue should be provided to visitors.

Now, it appears that the statue's implicit meaning has become all too clear. At the moment, it's unclear when exactly the statue will be removed, but it's just the latest piece of public art to come under scrutiny, as locations all over America are reckoning with racist symbols and statues.