A statue of a 19th century senator from Illinois who owned slaves and was a longtime nemesis of Abraham Lincoln has been moved from the Illinois Capitol’s lawn into storage.
The State Journal-Register reports crews on Saturday used equipment to remove the statue of Stephen Douglas and a statue of Pierre Menard, an early Illinois settler and politician who was also a slave owner, from the Statehouse lawn in Springfield.
The board of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol voted unanimously in August to remove both statues amid a reckoning on race sparked by George Floyd's May 25 death in Minneapolis police custody.
