Under President Joe Biden, the National Park Service has announced it plans to remove a William Penn statue from Welcome Park in Philadelphia.
“The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors. Welcome Park was designed by the internationally acclaimed design firm Venturi & Scott Brown Associates. The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982,” the agency said in a statement.
“The proposed rehabilitation of Welcome Park includes expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.”
Because Penn owned slaves, some historic sites have removed his name, despite his respect for Native Americans.
From Breitbart:
In his now-infamous remarks on the Charlottesville riot in 2017 — during which he actually condemned the neo-Nazis and white supremacists, contrary to the Democratic Party’s continued propaganda — then-President Donald Trump warned that the removal of Confederate statues would be followed by the removal of statues of American heroes — a prediction that continues to be fulfilled.
