'Monuments matter': Christopher Columbus statue standing tall once again even after radicals did their worst



One of personages repeatedly targeted for erasure in the American left's violent iconoclasm in 2020 has at last found asylum on the White House grounds, thanks to President Donald Trump and some other unrelenting American patriots.

Toppling giants

Liberals appear to have no issue raising and keeping statues in public spaces so long as they are culturally, morally, and/or historically subversive.

Take, for example, the golden statue of a horned monster that was erected atop the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in January 2023.

The dehumanized figure — which Pakistani-born propagandist Shahzia Sikander purportedly designed to capture the "spirit" of the movement seeking to legalize abortion across the United States — was celebrated by radicals in and outside the courthouse. Claire Bishop, professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, excitedly told the New York Times, "Maybe she can help channel us back to reinstating Roe v. Wade."

Another statue that liberal activists not only tolerated but celebrated was the ram-headed Baphomet statue the Satanic Temple installed at the Iowa Capitol along with a satanic altar ahead of Christmas that same year.

While evidently unperturbed by demonic imagery, liberal activists have evidenced an aversion in recent years to sculptures reminiscent of America's proud past, noble beginnings, and Christian character.

'These monuments matter.'

Amid the Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination campaign of 2020, radicals vandalized and/or toppled — in many cases through official actions — numerous statutes across the country, including those depicting Spanish missionary Junípero Serra and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.

Christopher Columbus — the Italian "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" who sailed under the Spanish flag and whose four transatlantic voyages set the stage for American civilization — was one of the 2020 iconoclasts' most popular targets.

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Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city's Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, then toppled a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan — a destructive act brushed off by city officials.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the explorer, the cheering mob threw the remains into the harbor.

The incident took place just days after President Donald Trump, then in his first term, issued an executive order aimed at protecting such statues from destruction — an order where he stated that extremists' "selection of targets reveals a deep ignorance of our history, and is indicative of a desire to indiscriminately destroy anything that honors our past."

Stoop and build 'em up

Some Americans proved unwilling to let the tide wash away American history.

Tilghman Hemsley, a local painter, sculptor, and fisherman, hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family's art studio. Hemsley's son, Will, used scans of the recovered pieces to create a replica of the 13-foot statue.

The New York Times reported that the recreation project received $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded funds in October 2020 "to help repair and restore statues of iconic historical figures that have been damaged or vandalized, and to construct new ones, in an effort to revitalize public interest in American history in advance of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026."

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the Washington Post that he and his allies also chipped in, raising and spending over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United — the group that not only commissioned and owned the original statue but reportedly backed the reconstruction efforts — told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

RELATED: Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police

Will Hemsley. Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Basil Russo, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, had reportedly reached out to the Trump administration after Baltimore officials refused to install the replica in public.

'In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero.'

"Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent," Russo said in a statement.

"For over a century, Columbus' legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country," Russo continued. "Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans. This history remains central to why these monuments matter."

Working in coordination with the Italian American Organizations United, the COPOMIAO gifted the statue to the White House.

On Sunday, the statue — which was reportedly transported to the White House by Tilghman and Will Hemsley along with Randsallstown resident Jeff Bayer — was installed on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House.

Trump thanked the COPOMIAO in a letter on Sunday for its "incredible generosity in gifting the Federal Government a beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus," noting that he is "truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House."

The president said further that the statue will "stand as an eternal memorial to courage, adventure, and the noblest aspirations of the human spirit as well as the extraordinary pride of our wonderful Italian American community."

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Times in a statement Sunday, "In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he's honored as such for generations to come."

Tilghman Hemsley told the Baltimore Sun that the statue's installation "was very climactic and it was very fulfilling."

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Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police



A Massachusetts city in the Greater Boston area has made abundantly clear that it will not be dominated by the sensitivities of activists — those whose apparent discomfort with America's Christian inheritance has them fighting to hide civic symbols of courage, honor, and bravery.

Dealt a legal setback in October, the city of Quincy is now asking the state's top court to weigh in on the matter of an angel and a saintly firefighter.

Saints and iconoclasts

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch commissioned renowned sculptor Sergey Eylanbekov to design two 10-foot-tall bronze statues heavy with cultural and historical significance to honor police and firefighters outside their new public safety headquarters.

While the city had erected other statues by Eylanbekov without issue, this time was different as the new statues also carried religious significance — one depicting Florian, a 3rd-century firefighting Roman Christian, and the other depicting the winged archangel Michael stepping on the head of a demon.

The statues have many fans in the community, including Quincy Police Chief Mark Kennedy, who indicated he feels "honored" by the Michael statue, and Quincy Firefighters Local 792 president Tom Bowes, who said, "Florian embodies the values that are most important to our work as firefighters: honor, courage, and bravery."

Not all were, however, pleased.

'If beautiful art has religious meaning to anyone, it must be hidden away from everyone.'

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State joined a handful of locals in suing last May to block the installation.

Among the plaintiffs are:

  • a Unitarian social justice warrior;
  • a self-identified Catholic who finds the "violent imagery" of good triumphing over evil to be "offensive";
  • a local synagogue member who suggested the images "may exacerbate the current rise in anti-Semitism";
  • an Episcopalian who believes that walking past such statues would amount to "submission to religious symbols"; and
  • a lapsed Catholic who suggested the image of Michael stepping on the head of a demon was "reminiscent of how George Floyd was killed."

Their lawsuit claimed that "affixing religious icons of one particular faith to a government facility — the city's public safety building, no less — sends an alarming message that those who do not subscribe to the city's preferred religious beliefs are second-class residents who should not feel safe, welcomed, or equally respected by their government."

The complaint strategically neglected to mention the significance of Michael in other religions, in the Western literary canon, and pop culture. Similarly, it largely glossed over Florian's potential secular appeal, emphasizing his recognition by Catholics as a saint.

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Detail from 17th century painting of Michael vanquishing Satan. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Mayor Koch emphasized in an affidavit that "the selection had nothing to do with Catholic sainthood, but rather was an effort to boost morale and to symbolize the values of truth, justice, and the prevalence of good over evil."

The plaintiffs evidently saw things differently as their complaint suggested the statues' installation "will not serve a predominantly secular purpose," but rather to "promote, promulgate, and advance one faith, subordinating other faiths as well as nonreligious traditions."

Setback

Norfolk Superior Court obliged the iconoclasts in October, blocking the planned installation of the already purchased and completed statues while the case proceeds.

Judge William Sullivan, a Democratic appointee, said in his ruling that "the Complaint raises colorable concerns that members of the community not adherent to Catholicism or Christian teaching who pass beneath the two statues to report a crime may reasonably question whether they will be treated equally."

The judge suggested further that the statues "serve no discernable secular purpose."

"Although defendants argue that the public has an interest in inspiring the city's first responders in carrying out their work to maximum effectiveness, the court does not conceive the ability, commitment, and enthusiasm of members of the Quincy Police and Fire Departments to serve the communities will be appreciably undermined if the two statues are absent for the duration of this litigation," added Sullivan.

The ACLU — which has alternatively defended the erection of satanic displays on public grounds — celebrated the ruling with Massachusetts chapter staff attorney Rachel Davidson thanking Sullivan for "acknowledging the immediate harm that the installation of these statues would cause."

Onwards and upwards

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed last month to hear an appeal of the lesser court's ruling — an opportunity welcomed both by the ACLU of Massachusetts and the city of Quincy.

"We look forward to defending Quincy’s plan to honor our brave first responders at the Massachusetts high court," Mayor Koch said at the time.

The city — represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Quincy solicitor James Timmins — filed a brief with the SJC on Wednesday, making mince meat of the activists' arguments and underscoring the statues' permissibility under the law.

The brief reiterated that the statues have a secular purpose; their primary effect will not be to advance religion; and their prohibition based on religious hostility would violate the U.S. Constitution.

The brief noted further that the plaintiffs lack standing "since merely observing public symbols one finds disagreeable is not a cognizable injury" and that "the placement of inanimate statues as public art on a public building does not implicate direct support of religion in any manner, let alone the subordination by law of some faiths to others."

To prohibit the statues would also be "at odds with the robust history of public display of other symbols with religious significance" in the state, said the brief.

There are, for instance, statues of Moses and "Religion" in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courthouse; a statue of Pope John Paul II — a Catholic saint — in the Boston Common; and a statue of Quaker martyr Mary Dyer outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

"The ACLU’s theory in this case is tragically simple: If beautiful art has religious meaning to anyone, it must be hidden away from everyone," Joseph Davis, senior counsel at Becket and an attorney for the city of Quincy, said in a statement.

"The ACLU’s radical rule flouts our nation’s civic heritage and decades of court decisions," continued Davis. "The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court should reject the ACLU’s Puritanical demands and make clear that artworks don’t have to be purged from the public square just because they might make someone think of religion."

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'Thugs do not rule America': Replica of Columbus statue toppled by liberal mob may soon have a home — the White House



President Donald Trump is preparing to install a statue commemorating Christopher Columbus outside the White House. So there's no mistaking the counterrevolutionary and restorative nature of this act, the White House will reportedly erect a replica of the figure that iconoclasts unceremoniously tore down and tossed into Baltimore's harbor on July 4, 2020.

Columbus' four transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration of the Americas. While once celebrated for his courage and ambition — such that counties, cities, and towns across the United States were named after him — the Italian "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" who sailed under the Spanish flag has in recent years been subjected to routine defamation and denunciations by liberals.

Columbus' memory and likeness were especially popular targets during the left's Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination and iconoclasm campaign of 2020 that saw graves dug up, animals and places renamed, church windows busted, and cities torched.

As various municipalities and institutions such as the Smithsonian advocated for dropping Columbus Day in favor of "Indigenous Peoples' Day," radicals vandalized and toppled statues commemorating the Italian explorer across the country.

'Thugs do not rule America.'

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city's Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, in search of a target. After harassing restaurant patrons and other residents, the thugs set to work on toppling a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the great explorer — acts that were brushed off by city officials — the cheering mob chucked the broken pieces into the harbor.

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A piece of the Christopher Columbus statue is pulled from the harbor in Baltimore on July 6, 2020. Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Artist Tilghman Hemsley hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family's art studio. Using 3D scans of the remains, the artist, working in concert with his son, digitally reassembled the statue, then created a mold to fashion a replica out of crushed marble and resin, reported the Baltimore Sun.

"We brought it out of the harbor and reconstructed it, rebuilt it," Hemsley told the Sun. "So it's not really our artwork, but we were instrumental in putting it back together. It's like Humpty Dumpty."

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the newly thinned-out Washington Post that he and his allies ultimately raised and spent over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

'One of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.'

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United and a former Democratic Maryland state senator, told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

Pica's organization took a straw vote and unanimously decided to send a statue to the White House. They reportedly signed the loan agreement on Wednesday.

Pica told the AP that he was "cautiously optimistic" that the statue would make it to the White House and noted that it could possibly be installed "within two weeks."

Two people with knowledge of the counterrevolutionary initiative told the Washington Post that the statue will likely be installed on the south side of the White House grounds, by E Street and north of the Ellipse.

Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates who was involved in the effort to recover the statue, stated, "Thrilled at the possibility our Columbus statue could be placed at the White House! Stolen, vandalized, and dumped in the harbor in 2020 yet never forgotten."

"Six years later it rises again as a symbol of Italian American pride. Thugs do not rule America," added Mangione.

The statue's potentially imminent installation comes just months after Trump issued a proclamation honoring Columbus, calling him "the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth."

Trump pledged to "to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory."

Although the White House would not comment on any statues, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to Blaze News, "In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero. And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump."

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Trump flushes woke programs at Smithsonian museums, orders return of leftist-targeted statues



The left's long march through the institutions was a resounding success. Numerous businesses, churches, libraries, law enforcement agencies, schools, and other organizations have for decades served as incubators for radical activists and amplifiers for pernicious ideologies.

Leftist marchers are, however, now being routed.

Conservatives and other normalcy advocates have in recent years undertaken a reconquest, enjoying success with certain academic institutions such as the New College of Florida as well as major businesses including Walmart, Harley-Davidson, and John Deere.

President Donald Trump — who has taken an axe to DEI, critical race theory, and gender ideology in the federal government and in federally funded organizations — continued his D.C.-focused purge of radicalism on Thursday, this time taking aim at the nation's premier museums.

Trump intends to rid the Smithsonian Institution, its 21 museums and 14 education and research centers, and the National Zoo of radical leftist programs, policies, and installations.

In an executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the president noted, "Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth."

'Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination.'

"This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light," continued Trump. "Under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed."

Trump slammed the Biden administration for advancing this "corrosive ideology" and cited the following as examples of the anti-American propaganda at issue.

  • The Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibit "The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture," which represents that "[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement."
  • The National Museum of African American History and Culture's assertions that the nuclear family, rugged individualism, self-reliance, prioritization of work over play, emphasis on rational linear thinking, punctuality, decisiveness, and a future-oriented outlook are "aspects and assumptions of whiteness and white culture in the United States."
  • The "forthcoming Smithsonian American Women's History Museum plans on celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women's sports."

The Smithsonian also enraged conservatives in recent years with the National Museum of American History's Hispanic exhibit portraying religion and history through a Marxist lens and the Smithsonian Institution's 2020 "Girlhood" exhibit featuring the racist founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, and a medical transvestite.

Trump directed Vice President JD Vance to work with senior staffers to "remove improper ideology" from the Smithsonian Institution and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.

Trump also tasked Vance and Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to work with congressional lawmakers to ensure that Congress avoids bankrolling exhibits or programs at the Smithsonian Institution that "degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy."

Cognizant and critical of the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum's initiative to feature male cross-dressers in future exhibits, Trump also insisted that the museum does "not recognize men as women in any respect."

"Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history," said Trump's order.

In addition to flushing leftist radicalism out of the Smithsonian museums, Trump — whose administration has been reverting the names of federal lands and military bases to what they were before Joe Biden took office — set his sights on a restoration of that which the iconoclasts of yesteryear chose to eliminate from the public consciousness.

Radicals both inside and outside government committed to a campaign of destruction and deracination in the wake of George Floyd's death in 2020, digging up graves, toppling statues, renaming animals, melting down busts, and knocking out church windows.

Trump directed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to figure out whether public monuments, memorials, statues, or other properties within the Interior Department's jurisdiction were removed or changed during this radical campaign "to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology."

The president demanded further the reinstatement of pre-existing monuments that were removed.

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Harris haunted by her revisionism and past attacks on Columbus Day



Leftists have worked feverishly in recent years to deracinate and disorient the population, severing America's ties with its history and vilifying those dynamic figures who paved the way for the United States to ultimately become the envy of the world.

Over the course of this resentment-fueled campaign, iconoclasts and revisionists have changed place names, renamed species, toppled hundreds of statues, melted down busts, removed church windows, advanced bogus alternate histories, dug up graves, and built a parasitic industry geared toward racial division.

The Trump campaign and other critics issued reminders Monday that Kamala Harris has long been a proponent of this campaign — and that Columbus Day is one of her many targets.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital, "Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police, she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day."

Leavitt appears to have been referring to Harris' indication prior to the collapse of her previous presidential campaign that she would officially change "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."

When asked at a 2019 town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whether she supported the controversial name change, the Washington Times reported that Harris first began by talking about legislating to make lynching a federal crime.

'Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease.'

"People did not want to deal and accept and most importantly admit that we are the scene of a crime when it comes to what we did with slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism in this country, and we have to be honest about that," said then-Sen. Harris. "If we are not honest, we are not going to deal with the vestiges of all of that harm, and we are not going to correct course, and we are not going to be true to our values and morals."

Harris added, "Similarly when it comes to indigenous Americans, the indigenous people, there is a lot of work that we still have to do, and I appreciate and applaud your point and your effort, and count me in on support."

On her first Columbus Day as vice president, Harris issued a statement effectively condemning the immigrants who first diversified the continent:

It is an honor to be with you this week as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day, as we speak truth about our nation's history. Since 1934, every October the United States has recognized the voyage of the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas. But that is not the whole story. That has never been the whole story. Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease. We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on native communities today.

In 2022 and 2023, Harris doubled down, celebrating the Columbus Day alternate.

Columbus Day, which commemorates the daring 15th-century Italian whose four transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration of Americas, is one of 11 official federal holidays.

The Pew Research Center noted that it was first observed as a federal holiday in 1937 — initially conceived of as a celebration of Italian-American heritage and largely the result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization known for its charitable outreach. Not only does Harris want to rename its hard-won holiday, she has suggested that the group's members' Catholic faith disqualifies them from serving in federal courts.

As of October 2023, only 16 American states and the territory of America Samoa observe the second Monday in October as an official public holiday called Columbus Day.

Axios noted that the day is officially known as "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in New Mexico, Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

President Joe Biden proclaimed Oct. 14, 2024, both "Indigenous Peoples' Day" and Columbus Day.

"President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus' great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation's history like Kamala Harris," added Leavitt.

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BBC continues its DEI-fication of British history with 'racially diverse' series about the Battle of Hastings



Leftists appear conflicted about Western history. On the one hand, they have endeavored to sever ties with it, tearing down statues, renaming places and species, and digging up graves. Yet, they also appear keen to transmogrify Western history — to rewrite it and reimagine it in order to bolster their contemporary worldview, advance their agenda, or to accommodate the sensitivities of their peers.

This latter impulse to transmogrify history appears to dominate in the United Kingdom where there is a burgeoning genre of revisionist agitprop aimed at either distorting facts to paint Caucasians uniquely as history's villains or to erase Caucasians from the isles' history.

The British Broadcasting Corporation has contributed to this genre for years and has shown no signs of stopping.

The Telegraph recently revealed that a forthcoming BBC historical drama series about the Battle of Hastings — between Anglo-Saxons and Norman-French forces for control of England in 1066 — will be played by a "diverse cast."

"King and Conqueror," a CBS Studios coproduction picked up by the BBC, will apparently feature non-white actors as Anglo-Saxon characters.

"Adding diversity to a high medieval period setting follows the BBC’s 'colour-blind' casting of non-white stars as Tudor courtiers in another upcoming historical drama, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light," reported the Telegraph.

For instance, Elander Moore, an actor of Trinidadian decent, will play Morcar, son of Ælfgā, the earl of Mercia, and himself an earl of Northumbria, who fought against Viking and Norman invaders.

Jason Forbes, a black English actor from Bristol, will reportedly play a fictional Anglo-Saxon aristocrat named Thane Thomas.

'A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse.'

In the BBC's original announcement of the show, Lindsey Martin, senior vice president of international development and coproductions at CBS Studios — formerly of Netflix — indicated the show would be a "bold and fresh take on a story that has endured for nearly 1,000 years" with themes "as contemporary and relevant as ever."

Historian Zareer Masani told the Telegraph, "Some of us, including people of color, grew up thinking actors ought to look like characters they played."

Masani noted further that it was "absolutely crazy that they've applied this color-blindness to a period when Britain was at its least multicultural, before even the Norman Conquest," stressing further that this approach was "hugely confusing and downright misleading."

David Abulafia, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge, noted, "Since the whole series will undoubtedly bear little relation to historical fact, I think we shall have to put up with the bizarre notion that there were black earls in Anglo-Saxon England."

"All the more so, since we are no longer supposed to talk about 'Anglo-Saxons,'" continued Abulafia, alluding to the recent name change of University of Cambridge's historical journal Anglo-Saxon England to Early Medieval England and Its Neighbours.

"If they didn't exist, we can do what we like," added Abulafia.

British journalist Michael Deacon noted that, "A cynic might wonder whether such casting is part of a cunning ploy to reinforce the fashionable progressive message that, throughout its history, this country has always been ethnically diverse — which means that, if you object to mass immigration in the 21st century, you're not just racist, but historically ignorant."

Deacon suggested, however, that it is premature to judge the show having not yet seen it but joked about the potential of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king, being scripted in the show to dismiss the threat of a Norman invasion as "alarmist nonsense," and stating, "I don't want to hear any more of these far-Right conspiracy theories. In any case, it's vital that we remain open to the world. As any historian worth his, her or their salt will tell you, Britain has always been vibrantly multicultural — ever since the Windrush arrived, in 1948BC.”

'It must not be an up-ended seesaw.'

The casting for "King and Conqueror" is par for the course at the BBC, whose program "Horrible Histories" released a song in 2021 called "Been Here from the Start," which suggested Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the Aurelian Moors, and the early Britons were black.

The second season of the BBC series "Wolf Hall," an adaptation of the Hilary Mantel novel of the same name about the court of Henry VIII, will reportedly have Edward VI's grandmother Lady Seymour played by an actress of Bahamian heritage. Thomas Wyatt, a Yorkshire man who was the first person to write sonnets in English, will be played by an Egyptian actor.

British author Petronella Wyatt, who claims Thomas Wyatt as a distant ancestor, suggested that "diverse casting, if it is to work at all, must have a logical grounding, particularly in an adaptation of a novel that prides itself on historical authenticity."

"It must also work both ways. It must not be an up-ended seesaw. If the logic of modern casting was followed across the board then white actors should also be given roles on the basis of colour-blindness," wrote Wyatt. "But in our cowardly new world there is no equity or freedom from moral indignation, no all-embracing tolerance, only snorts and objurgations. We have become incapable of imagining honourable intentions in those with whom we disagree."

The genre of revisionist agitprop is not limited to film.

In August 2023, the publisher British Bloomsbury released a children's book entitled, "Brilliant Black British History," which erroneously stated, "Britain was a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came, and during that time the most famous British monument was built, Stonehenge." The book was promoted in the U.K. by a government-funded group.

Leftists have also not limited their revisionism to matters of race.

Last year, the North Hertfordshire Museum decided to retroactively make Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "transgender" and assign him female pronouns.

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Magic Kingdom erased 'Song of the South' elements from Splash Mountain. The remake may be another Disney flop.



Radicals hostile to America and the West committed to a campaign of deracination and iconoclasm in the summer of 2020, digging up graves, toppling statues, renaming animals, melting down busts, knocking out church windows, and killing off iconic brands. Disney made sure to get in on the action.

Amidst the deadly BLM riots, Disney announced that it would overhaul one of its featured theme park rides: Splash Mountain. Apparently, the ride prickled race obsessives with its depiction of characters and songs from "Song of the South" — Disney's Oscar-winning 1946 musical wherein a former slave shares folk tales during the Reconstruction era.

Despite blowing an estimated $150 million on the overhaul and engaging in a concerted hype campaign, it appears Disney has yet another flop on its hands.

'The new concept is inclusive — one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by.'

Splash Mountain first opened in Disneyland in 1989. Disney World in Orlando got its own version a few years later. On both coasts, the ride featured the tale of Br'er Rabbit and his daring escape from a fox and bear. The ride's flume 52.5-foot drop plopped generations of guests down the river and into the moist safety of a mock briar batch.

Anthropomorphic animals and a coherent narrative in a Southern setting were evidently too much to bear.

On June 25, 2020, Disney revealed that Splash Mountain — at both Disneyland park in California and the Magic Kingdom park in Florida — will soon be completely reimagined. The theme is inspired by an all-time favorite animated Disney film, "The Princess and the Frog.'"

"The approach to retheming or 'plussing' attractions (as Walt Disney referred to it) begins with Imagineers asking the question, how can we build upon or elevate the experience and tell a fresh, relevant story?" said the statement. "And with this long-standing history of updating attractions and adding new magic, the retheming of Splash Mountain is of particular importance today. The new concept is inclusive — one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year."

Despite over 100,000 fans petitioning Disney to spare Splash Mountain, Disney closed the ride in both parks in early 2023.

'It had kind of run its course.'

While the new ride based on a box office underperformer uses the same tracks as Splash Mountain and riders still travel in railed rafts fashioned to look like hollowed-out logs, the New York Times reported that Disney spent an estimated $150 million to alternatively tell the story of lead character Tiana's efforts to cobble together a band for a Mardi Gras party using all-new decorations, audio, and animatronics.

Ted Robledo, the ride's executive creative director, stressed to the Times the various signs of "diversity" at play, by which he meant a black protagonist, three types of music, and signage in Spanish and French.

“We're always looking at ways to cast a wider net," said Robledo. "With the old property, for a variety of reasons, it wasn't that relevant any more. It had kind of run its course."

The Times alluded to some signals that potential park guests aren't interested.

A nine-minute point-of-view video tour of the ride uploaded to YouTube had 10,000 thumbs up and over 38,000 thumbs down as of Monday. That Park Place estimated the ratio of positive to negative comments on the video to be roughly 1:200.

Numerous annual pass holders permitted to preview the ride in person ahead of its grand opening later this month have also effectively given "Tiana's Bayou Adventure" thumbs down.

According to Inside the Magic, the ride has been beset by malfunctions and breakdowns. Apparently the ride's hardware has trouble sustaining and communicating with the new animatronics.

Various videos shared online show new characters frozen in place while dialogue and music eerily play on. Last week, on at least one occasion, guests reportedly had to be evacuated following a ride malfunction.

It's unclear whether the new ride will survive as long as its predecessor, given the initial backlash as well as its apparent failure to win over race obsessives.

Katie Kapurch, an English professor at Texas State University, told the Associated Press that the new ride is silent on the "racial realities of the segregated eras they depict."

"We might see the impulse to replace rather than dismantle or build anew as a metaphor for structural racism, too," Kapurch said. "Again, this is unintentional on Disney's part, but the observation gets to the heart of how Disney reflects America back to itself."

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In reversal of broader trend, Virginia school board votes to restore schools' Confederate names



There has been a concerted effort in recent years to sever ties with the nation's past. Iconoclasts and revisionists have toppled hundreds of statues, renamed species, melted down busts, removed church windows, dug up graves, changed place names, and gone so far — as the Biden administration did last year — as to remove the Jewish American-designed Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

A school board in Virginia bucked the trend early Friday morning.

Two schools in the Shenandoah County Public Schools district were renamed in 2021 following a school board vote the previous year. Stonewall Jackson High School, named after Confederate infantry Gen. Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, became Mountain View High School. Ashby-Lee Elementary School, named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, and rebel cavalry commander Turner Ashby, became Honey Run Elementary School. The Confederates' associations with slavery were reportedly a key factor in the decision to make the changes.

Axios reported that the Coalition for Better Schools, a local conservative group, continued pushing to change the names back after an unsuccessful attempt in 2022. The group claimed in a April 3 letter to the members of the SCPS board that the group understood "that the decision to rename these schools was made in response to discussions surrounding Confederate symbols" but that "revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community's heritage and respect the wishes of the majority."

After an SCPS School Board meeting Thursday night, which ran for roughly six hours and involved extensive commentary from the public, the board voted 5-1 to overturn the 2020 decision.

Opponents to the restorations suggested the changes would put a gloss on historical racism.

"If you vote to restore the name Stonewall Jackson in 2024, you will be resurrecting an act in 1959 that is forever rooted in mass resistance and Jim Crow segregation," said one resident.

Kyle Gutshall, the lone member who voted against the motion, suggested there was no clear justification for the restoration, reported WLOX-TV.

"We've talked about the right way, the wrong way to do it," said Guthall. "Things like this really come down to perspective and how you view things."

Some supporters suggested that even an imperfect history is worth remembering.

"People in the Shenandoah Valley say that only the Confederates are the ones who did nasty things or did nasty things to black people," said Dennis Barlow, the school board chair. "You just stopped reading your history and you're not being realistic. War's hell."

The motion that ultimately passed early Friday morning requires that the restoration be implemented using funds privately donated exclusively "and not be borne by the school system or government tax funds.

Robert Watson, an assistant professor of history at Hampton University, suggested to USA Today ahead of the vote that the district may be the first in the nation to reverse course on Confederate school name changes.

"If it does get traction in the Shenandoah Valley, it probably will get some traction [in] other places," said Watson.

A US school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, voted in favor of restoring previously removed Confederate names to two schools, becoming the first community in the nation to reinstate such names
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Christian Navy veteran charged with hate crime for beheading demon statue at Iowa Capitol



Hundreds of statues of historical and religious significance have been toppled throughout the United States in recent years. Rather than stop the iconoclasts responsible, government officials have in many cases rewarded them — at least when they were not themselves directly responsible.

However, it became clear this week that the powers that be still hold some things sacred: abortion clinics and satanic idols.

Within hours of a federal court finding six more pro-life activists guilty of peacefully demonstrating inside an infamous late-term abortion clinic, Christian Navy veteran Michael Cassidy was charged with a hate crime Tuesday for toppling a satanic statute last year at the Iowa Capitol.

The Polk County Attorney's Office indicated that Cassidy's admission that he "destroyed the property because of the victim's religion" prompted the decision to increase Cassidy's previous misdemeanor charge to a class D felony.

What's the background?

The Satanic Temple is an anti-Christian leftist group that has distributed satanic literature to kids; championed the LGBT agenda; worked ardently to ensure that mothers can have their unborn babies legally killed by way of their "religious abortion ritual"; performed public "unbaptisms"; erected multiple statues of demons on public property; and held a demonization ceremony in protest of the canonization of the Catholic Spanish priest Junípero Serra.

Blaze News previously reported that weeks ahead of Christmas, the Satanic Temple installed a demonic altar on the first floor of the Iowa Capitol along with caped figure of what appeared to be a ram-headed Baphomet holding a red pentacle.

Baphomet has long been associated with devil worship and the occult; however, it appears to have originated as a slight against the Muslim faith.

UCLA professor Zrinka Stahuljak indicated "Baphomet" was originally a French corruption of the name Mohamed. British historian Peter Partner suggested further that the Knights Templar, who successfully reclaimed territory previously occupied by Islamic forces, were accused by inquisitors of worshiping Baphomet as part of what appears to have been a 14th-century smear.

Lucien Greaves, the co-founder of the Satanic Temple, claimed the demon statue was not intended to be insulting despite its anti-Islamic significance and the installation's exhibition of the anti-Christian group's "seven fundamental tenets," including "the freedom to offend."

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Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) faced significant pressure to have the statue taken down. While Reynolds acknowledged the demonic altar was "objectionable," she invited critics to join her in prayer at the state Capitol rather than in destruction.

State Rep. Jon Dunwell (R), a Christian pastor, outlined why this was the optimal response, noting that the Satanic Temple successfully "petitioned for their display in August and were approved with some modification."

Dunwell said the display "glorifies the evil influence we oppose" but was nevertheless lawful.

Satanic Temple co-founder Greaves stated, "I would hope that even people who disagree with the symbolism behind our values, whether they know what those values [are] or not, would at least appreciate that it's certainly a greater evil to allow the government to pick and choose between forms of religious expression."

Beheading Baphomet

Although a prayerful man, Michael Cassidy of Lauderdale, Mississippi, apparently figured it wouldn't hurt to also smash the demonic display.

After liking a post by Blaze News columnist Auron MacIntyre, which stated, "Periodic reminder that the religious right were correct about everything," Cassidy marched into the Iowa Capitol on Dec. 14, 2023, and decapitated the Baphomet statue.

Adding insult to symbolic injury, he tossed the ram head into a garbage can.

"I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted," Cassidy said in an interview with the Sentinel.

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Cassidy, a former F/A-18 Hornet pilot who served on the USS George Washington, turned himself in to police following the beheading without incident. He was subsequently charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.

"The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment," Cassidy told the Sentinel. "Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water."

The Satanic Temple Iowa said in a statement, "This morning, we were informed by authorities that the Baphomet statue in our holiday display was destroyed beyond repair. ... [J]ustice is being pursued the correct way, through legal means. Solve et Coagula! Happy Holidays! Hail Satan!"

No good deed goes unpunished

The Polk County Attorney's Office announced Tuesday that on the basis of Cassidy's statements both to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property due to its anti-Christian nature — or what prosecutors referred to as "the victim's religion" — they had enhanced his original charge to "third-degree criminal mischief in violation of individual rights, a class D felony, according to Iowa Code Section 729A.2."

The attorney's office indicated that the cost to replace or repair the demonic installation was between $750 and $1,500.

The Des Moines Register indicated the radical group alternatively estimated the cost of replacing the statue was $3,000.

The attorney's office also underscored that prosecutors seek "fair and just resolutions of all cases, as we continue to apply the law equally to all, regardless of religion, race, sexual orientation, or economic status."

Casidy faces arraignment on Feb. 15. He has raised over $85,700 for his legal defense so far.

The Register noted that the Navy veteran's attorney, Sara Pasquale, declined Tuesday to comment on the new charge.

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