A Brief Shining Light










I haven't lived in my home City of Bristol, U.K. since 1976, so my memory has been tested as I've tried to remember the public statuary there.

There was, of course, the Edward Colston-the-Slaver statue which was thankfully toppled from its plinth by justice seeking citizens.

Apart from that, I remember these:
Two Monarchs, one Statesman, two Preachers.

Monarchs
Victoria

King William III (William of Orange)

Statesman


Edmund Burke, for six years an M.P. for Bristol. Greatly admired by the colonial American revolutionary leaders.

Victoria, William III and Burke sanctioned by the Bristol City authorities

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Two preachers
 

Methodist Preacher John Wesley


Methodist preacher and hymn writer Charles Wesley.

The Wesley Brothers used Bristol as one of the most important bases for their ministry. 

Their statues were most likely created when English Methodism moved away from being  a society for working class believers and became a respectable denomination for the lower middle classes

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The statues of William III,  Burke, Queen Victoria, the Wesley brothers each erected by "the powers that be".
THEN CAME A BRIEF SHINING MOMENT
Unauthorized by the powers that be, citizens took matters into their own hands, and erected a statute of BLM Activist Jan Reid  on the plinth where Colston-the-Slaver's statue once stood.



Whoopee and wonderful.  If only powerful and wise black women and men had statues in every major U.K  or U.S.A . City.

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Early today the Bristol Civil authorities removed the Jan Reid statue (with great care not to damage it).

That's "sorta" O.K. because both Jan Reid and the Sculptor Marc Quinn understood that their work would not be permanent.

The Statue is now in civic storage.  The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Reese has gently asked the sculptor to either retrieve it, or donate it to a Bristol Museum

Tempers have remained calm!
BUT OH FOR MANY MORE SHINING LIGHTS. If only scores of U.S.A and U.K. cities had Jan Reid like statues.



More like this everywhere.  YEAH

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