 | | Thomas Jefferson, Relief Portrait, C. Paul Jennewein, Marble, 1950.Architect of the Capitol |
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In the culture wars that spilled over during President Donald Trump's time in office, the most visible flash point was whether to preserve or destroy monuments depicting figures from America's racist history. |
The former president even went so far as to veto a military spending bill because it included a provision to rename bases commemorating Confederate officials. (Congress overrode the veto.) |
But when a crowd of Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, the riot actually ended up doing damage not only to the building itself, but also to some of the monuments and busts on display there — including those depicting Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, two presidents who owned enslaved Black people — the sorts of figures whose statues have been felled at recent Black Lives Matter protests. |
 | | Be sheekee or 'Buffalo', Francis Vincenti, Marble, 1855.U.S. Government Publishing Office |
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Testifying today before a congressional subcommittee, Farar Elliott, the House curator and head of its Office of Art and Archives, said that six sculptures and two paintings had been damaged amid the violence last month, and she requested an additional appropriation of $25,000 to restore the objects. The damaged pieces include busts of four former House speakers, a bust of the Chippewa leader Be sheekee, a statue of Jefferson and portraits of Madison and John Quincy Adams. The damage was caused largely by chemical irritants released into the air, including bear repellents and pepper spray. |
Beyond the immediate irony that Trump supporters, who were opposed to tearing down statues of Confederate leaders, damaged historical artwork in the country's seat of power, the moment invites a few questions of its own: What monuments belong in the Capitol? And, if it's worth extra federal dollars to restore damaged homages to slave owners like Jefferson and Madison, then is it also worth spending money to expand the collection? |
Sarah Lewis, an art historian at Harvard University, wrote in an email that "the battleground of art and culture" has been used throughout the country's history "to create narratives that would legitimate who counts and who belongs in society." |
Lewis pointed to the work of Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and activist, as pushing to expand the notion of who is seen as worthy of being celebrated and historicized — and, by extension, who is remembered as being fully human. Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative recently erected the country's first major memorial to the legacy of slavery in the United States, and to the lives of enslaved Black people and their descendants. |
 | | James Madison Statue, Walker K. Hancock, Carrara Marble, 1976.Architect of the Capitol |
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By comparison, even though it was built largely by enslaved laborers, the Capitol includes only one small object recognizing their lives and work: a slab of sandstone bearing a plaque, titled the Slave Labor Commemorative Marker, that was unveiled in 2012. |
"Every object in the Capitol is a marker of the debates about who fought for a right to belong in the United States," Lewis said. "It is everywhere, from the buildings erected by enslaved men and women to commissioned paintings, to even the dome of the Capitol overseen by Congressman Jefferson Davis." |
And when it comes to ensuring that difficult aspects of the nation's history are preserved, even some lawmakers are saying the conversation shouldn't be relegated to figures from the past. |
Two Democrats, Representatives Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Andy Kim of New Jersey, have called for preserving the damaged glass door panes leading to the Rotunda that were cracked during the Capitol riot. |
In a letter to the House leadership, Phillips and Kim wrote: "Throughout the Capitol, keen eyes can still find impressions of our history, including chisel marks on the columns in the crypt left by those enslaved by early Americans to build the Capitol, a bullet hole in the desk of Republican leadership in the House chamber from the 1954 attack by Puerto Rican nationalists, and an inlay patch on the desk of traitorous former Senator Jefferson Davis marking where Union soldiers attacked the desk with bayonets during the Civil War. |
"Just as these reminders of our complicated past remain, so too must some of the damage caused by the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021." |
Mabel Wilson, an architecture professor at Columbia University and the author of "Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums," said in an interview that some remembrances of Jan. 6 ought to join — or perhaps replace — the memorials to former Confederate soldiers and politicians that still stand in the Capitol. |
"It's important that it doesn't get covered up, but that it is remembered," Wilson said of the Capitol riot. "Because it's important to realize what we're capable of as a nation. As astonishing as it was, it did happen, it was real and it could easily happen again." |
Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts asked today whether the House curator's office planned to take "some artifacts of what occurred on Jan. 6" into its collection. Elliott said that her first priority was to "make sure that we conserve and treat and clean the objects that already exist in the collection." |
But then, she mentioned the need to ask an ongoing question: "What are the artifacts that tell the story of the people's house, right until today?" |
This week's confirmation and stimulus fights reveal how Biden's next two years may go. |
Most administrations start with a burst of activity, but the frenetic action on Capitol Hill this week represents something different: a preview of what to expect over the next two years from a grind-it-out presidency laboring to rack up wins before the 2022 midterm elections. |
"The bottom line" is that "the country is looking for action," Mike Donilon, a Biden adviser, wrote in a memo leaked to reporters last week. |
On Tuesday, the White House plunged neck-deep in a trio of testy confirmation fights, faced down an increasingly united Republican front against Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, and fielded darts from critics, left and right, on the minimum wage and student debt — all the while grappling with centrists from both parties who control the balance of power in the Senate. |
But the animating spirit behind the administration's approach is impatience — born of the pandemic, the looming midterms and Biden's own bitter experiences with Republicans during President Barack Obama's administration. |
"He knows he is not going to be judged by the margins he gets in the Senate — the biggest danger is a failure to deliver what he promised," said Ben LaBolt, a longtime Obama aide who worked in the White House, often around Biden, the former vice president. "His approach reflects the sober realities we encountered back in 2009, when the Republicans claimed they were holding out for a deal, but never did one." |
As a consequence, Biden has not shied away from conflict while projecting an air of conciliation. A lot of it has to do with his most powerful aide, Ron Klain — who served with him in the vice president's office and is now the hard-driving White House chief of staff. |
Two of Biden's other cabinet selections — Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico, the nominee to lead the Interior Department, and Xavier Becerra, the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — have drawn fire from the right but appear to be on a steadier course to confirmation, particularly after Senator Joe Manchin indicated today that he wouldn't object to Haaland's nomination. |
Both had confirmation hearings yesterday and faced questions from senators again today — and senators, already griping about the compressed schedule, also today took up the nomination of Jennifer Granholm, Biden's pick for energy secretary. |
But the biggest priority for Biden by far — and the one he has shown the least inclination to compromise on — remains his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, and he is not waiting to see if Republican support materializes. Yesterday, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican open to a much smaller deal, suggested Biden's package would not receive any votes from her party. |
That does not bother Donilon, one of the president's closest friends, who wrote in his memo that "this is not a moment in the country when obstructionism is rewarded." |
This piece comes from our live briefing, where you can find more updates on the news in Washington today. |
The Argument: Should the filibuster be put out of its misery? |
The first episode of "The Argument" with Jane Coaston as host gets right into the heart of an infuriatingly cyclical debate: Should the filibuster be killed once and for all? |
Arguing against the filibuster is Ezra Klein, a Times Opinion columnist and host of "The Ezra Klein Show." Defending the procedure and its merits is Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America. You can listen here. |
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