“It’s time to take down monuments that memorialize the intended subservience of black people in this country,” the petition says.

The Emancipation Statue stands in Lincoln Park, which is overseen by the National Park Service.

“D.C. is known for its statues and monuments,” says Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie. “But the makeup of the people we honor doesn’t reflect the beautiful diversity of this city.”

The unveiling is slated for Barry’s birthday, which is March 6.

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans said he had arranged for the statue to be removed, but the National Park Service put the kibbosh on his plan.

More than half the city’s legislators have requested that NPS take down a memorial to Albert Pike that stands in Judiciary Square.

It was a voting rights art project from the last time it seemed that D.C. could conceivably get statehood.

The 102-year-old monument has been the subject of recent debate.

Could D.C. be getting a second statue in the U.S. Capitol just like all the states do? Eleanor Holmes Norton pushing for it.

The District finally got some representation in the U.S. Capitol. Well, at least in the building’s collection of statues, when the sculpture of the early civil rights leader Frederick Douglass was unveiled.