Mob intends to tear down the Emancipation Memorial and is backed by DC lawmaker

A man in a red shirt stood in front of the memorial and announced to a large crowd that they were going to tear this "motherf**ker" down on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

The announcement was followed by cheers from the crowd.

In light of the mob's demand, DC delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said that she will introduce legislation to bring it down legally.

In a statement, Norton said that "Although formerly enslaved Americans paid for this statue to be built in 1876, the design and sculpting process was done without their input, and it shows."

Before bringing legislation to Congress, she plans to work with the National Park Service and find out if they have the authority to take down this national treasure on their own. Norton's preference would be to shelf the monument in a museum.

“This statue has been controversial from the start,” she said. “It is time it was placed in a museum.”

The statue was paid for, in part, with donations of formerly enslaved persons, and was erected 11 years after Lincoln was assassinated. Frederick Douglas, who gave the keynote at the statue's unveiling, noted that he didn't like it.

Christina Sommers offered some history of the monument: "The DC monument the mob intends to destroy was paid for by donations from emancipated African-Americans in 1876. Frederick Douglass spoke at the unveiling. In 1974, it was rotated to face a memorial honoring celebrated black educator Mary McLeod Bethune."

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which is among the most pivotal pieces of legislation in American history. It deemed "that all persons held as slaves" within the confederate states are to be free, despite the fact that the Civil War would rage on for over two more years.

Mary McLeod Bethune, who is honored by the statue's placement, was a noted leader in education for black Americans, a civil right leader, a women's rights advocate, an advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a writer, among other achievements. She was the daughter of former slaves, and founded a college.

The mob does not appear to be interested in the history of these memorials, but are rather under the impression that nearly every statue in the US is a symbol of support for oppression and slavery.