Park Service to Revive Statue of Founding Father Who Enslaved Hundreds [View all]
Source: New York Times
Feb. 28, 2026 Updated 8:27 a.m. ET
A founding father and slave owner whose statue in Delaware was removed in 2020 amid calls for racial reckoning will be given a position in honor in Washington by the Trump administration as part of celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday, internal Interior Department documents show.
On July 2, 1776, Caesar Rodney raced from Dover, Del., to Philadelphia on horseback to cast his state’s decisive vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence. It would be formally adopted by the Continental Congress two days later, July 4, on what is now celebrated as Independence Day.
Though somewhat obscure as founding fathers go, Mr. Rodney caught President Trump’s attention during his first term. (A conservative think tank in Delaware that, like Mr. Trump, opposes offshore wind farms and advocates for cutting taxes and regulation, is named after Caesar Rodney.) At the time, Mr. Trump criticized the city of Wilmington for removing Mr. Rodney’s statue, calling it part of a “radical purge of America’s founding generation.” Historians said Mr. Rodney enslaved as many as 200 men and women.
Now the Interior Department plans to take Mr. Rodney’s statue from a Delaware storage facility and temporarily place it in Washington’s Freedom Plaza as part of America’s semiquincentennial, according to a Feb. 3 National Park Service memo reviewed by The New York Times.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/climate/caesar-rodney-statue-trump.html
No paywall (gift)
= new reply since forum marked as read