Do not debase Abraham Lincoln

City plans to return statue but remove plinth

By Aubrey Russell

More than five years ago, on Oct. 11, 2020, the monument commemorating Abraham Lincoln in Portland’s South Park Blocks was vandalized and toppled on a day designated as an “Indigenous People’s Day of Rage.”

Within the last few weeks, it was revealed that the city has adopted a plan—at least as early as last year—to not restore the Abraham Lincoln monument to its original condition, but to instead restore the Lincoln statue to a place on the ground, next to—not upon—its former elevated base.

This plan to debase the Lincoln sculpture will come as a surprise to nearly all Portlanders. The act of removing someone from their pedestal has an obvious and universal meaning. An online search tells us that “knocking someone from their pedestal” means: “reducing someone’s ego; to humble or humiliate one.”

We feel that it is wrong for the city of Portland to humiliate Abraham Lincoln, who remains one of history’s most progressive, respected and positive figures. In these times, Lincoln must be a person we try to emulate. We should not desecrate his statue.

The process of reckoning with public monuments commemorating historic leaders is an important one. It is understandable that our country has removed offensive monuments to certain “leaders,” for example. But no city that we are aware of has decided that a monument to Abraham Lincoln should be subjected to debasement. We are not asking our city to discourage the telling of history, but to encourage it through an additive approach to interpretation that educates and enlightens people.

A model for successful public arts policy has recently been demonstrated through the restoration and return of the Thompson Fountain. The city coordinated an inclusive and diverse set of perspectives in celebrating the return of the Thompson Elk Fountain; one which brought a moment of joy, relief and hope to those who have been concerned about the sense of decline in our city’s downtown core.

The Lincoln statue provides a similar opportunity to promote healing in our city by adding to our understanding of history, while leaving intact both the physical monument to Lincoln and the accomplishments that place him at the forefront of America’s progressive movement. Lincoln, in the four short years given him in the White House, preserved the Union, transformed our ideal of liberty through his Gettysburg Address, gave hope to enslaved blacks through the Emancipation Proclamation and gave legal meaning to freedom through the 13th Amendment.

When Portland conducted a survey in 2024, the city found that 82% of respondents wanted the Lincoln monument returned. The Office of Arts and Culture had publicly embraced this outcome for years. For the Office of Arts and Culture to now adopt a different course is wrong. We ask that the Office of Arts and Culture put Abraham Lincoln’s statue back on its base, where it belongs. Do not desecrate the statue; make it whole, as promised, once again.

Aubrey Russell is a Portland Heights resident and occasional contributor to the NW Examiner.