Abraham Lincoln will stand tall again in South Park Blocks

Mayor Keith Wilson says return statue to its original plinth

Steve Holgate, an actor who has portrayed Abraham Lincoln for 30 years, performs in the South Park Blocks.

Following a forum at which Abraham Lincoln was called a murderer by a panelist selected by the city of Portland’s Office of Arts & Culture and a plan that would not “return Lincoln to his pedestal” in the South Park Blocks was presented as a final decision, Mayor Keith Wilson had heard enough.

Two days later he made an announcement.

“I ran for mayor to repair, restore and revitalize our city. Now that Portland’s longstanding statue of President Abraham Lincoln has been repaired, it is time to restore it to its original pedestal as a proud piece of our citywide revitalization,” read Wilson’s statement.

“I ask that we reflect on the fact that the statue of President Lincoln came down not in an act of togetherness and self-examination, but in a moment of unilateral, senseless harm.

“I’ve listened to our community: Healing that wound requires prioritizing restoration above other goals. Reinterpretation, however earnest and well-founded by national experts, should never be forced by an act of destruction alone.

“As we move forward in restoring Lincoln and finalizing plans to restore other Portland monuments in the coming years, we will continue to bolster our community engagement strategies—incorporating lessons learned through this process.”

Two days earlier, Portlanders gathered informally but respectfully in the South Park Blocks on Sept. 8 to hear the words of Abraham Lincoln, as delivered by actor Steve Holgate, who has been portraying Lincoln for more than 30 years. A banner called for honoring the 16th president by returning him to his pedestal, where vandals topped his statue in 2020.

Then they joined a larger crowd across the street in the Portland Art Museum for what was promised as a “conversation” about the return of the statue in an event organized by the city’s Office of Arts & Culture.

The plan to return the statue to ground level a few feet from the plinth was made “to increase accessibility and spark reflection,” according to an earlier statement by Darion Jones, assistant director of the Portland Office of Arts & Culture.

But reflection was not the mood of the Sept. 8 panel. One panelist accused Lincoln of murder for failing to pardon more than 38 Dakota men sentenced to death by a military commission.

Another panelist thought it would be better to not return the statue at all because “I truly believe that it’s going to be destroyed … because I don’t think that people feel heard.”

Many in the audience of about 250 stood at intervals, held “Return Lincoln to his pedestal” and spoke out in anger. Loud voices complained that the format—which provided no opportunity for audience input other than writing notes to the panel—did not live up to the title of the event: “Lincoln’s return: a public conversation.”

“I was very disappointed in the event last night,” Deputy City Administrator Donnie Olivera wrote in an email yesterday. “It was not what I requested of staff and was frankly embarrassing to me and the city. For better and for worse it was illuminating and thus I made a recommendation to the mayor on a different course of action.”

The audience was in no mood to listen to the city panelists.