Member-only story
CULTURE + HISTORY
Why Some White People Are Clinging to The Ghost of Andrew Jackson
The 7th president's shameful legacy is far too often overlooked
The heroes someone keeps tell you a lot about their values. That's why it matters who society chooses to name its schools and streets after, who becomes immortalized as statues and placed on display. In that light, some of the historical figures that White people embrace in America have a poor, disqualifying character or conduct. If it were possible to remove racial bias from someone's mind, that point would be as clear as a spring stream. One such example is the attachment some White people have to preserve an Andrew Jackson statue in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 2020, Jackson's city council voted 5–1 to remove the statue, but this decision has courted controversy. Shad White, a conservative who is currently serving as a Mississippi state auditor, claimed in the Magnolia Tribune that "the move is "art of an extremist effort to erase history." However, removing Andrew Jackson's statue does, in fact, erase history — it simply acknowledges that his actions make him unfit to be placed on a public pedestal. Any student can research and learn more about the lives of American presidents, as information is freely available from the White House, the Library of…
