Last week in Philadelphia, the city finally responded to the long-standing, persistent calls by protestors and activists to remove a monument and mural to former mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo. In Philadelphia, Rizzo is a symbol of the brutal “law and order” approach to city residents, and oversaw and perpetrated the violent mistreatment of Black Philadelphians, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized communities during the 1960’s and 70’s. His statue, installed in 1999, was a recent example of a monument that reflected white supremacy and hyper-surveillance of Black communities.
The takedowns of the Rizzo mural and monument are now linked to the protest movements that have engaged crowds as large as 100,000 in the city over the last week. They were fueled by years of activism to confront the symbol of Rizzo and the legacy of policies that are still entrenched in our policing, criminal justice, and social services systems.
What comes next? Activists and residents have called on the city to repair the harms. A coalition of Black activist organizations have included in their demands a call to “Immediately & Permanently Remove All Symbols of State Violence.”
Imagining a better world in which the demands of activists are answered with actions is inspiring, and calls us to imagine symbols that might be a part of the healing process. In a recent editorial, advocate Faye Anderson put forth the names of 3 historic Black Philadelphians – Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, and William Still – each as worthy of monumental status. Our Artistic Director Paul Farber in an editorial contends what comes next “must reflect a radical re-envisioning toward justice, repair, and regrowth.”
We took a look back to see how public participants in our research in Philadelphia imagined a future for the Rizzo statue before it was removed. This research took place the same year we collaborated with the artist Hank Willis Thomas on his All Power to All People prototype monument. The research and sculpture were part of Monument Lab’s 2017 citywide exhibition with Mural Arts Philadelphia. We invited 20 artists and hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians to think together about a single question:“What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?” 4500 people shared their answers to that question on paper forms. 58 of those proposals mentioned Rizzo, and more than 1000 considered the area around City Hall as ripe for reinvention.
We organized selected proposals into three groups: (1) proposals from people who specifically identified their ideas as replacements for the Rizzo statue; (2) Proposed monuments that address resistance to police violence; (3) a sample or proposals that call attention to Black Philadelphians who the city might choose to celebrate with a monument.
The full collection can be found online at proposals.monumentlab.com.
Ideas for the site where Rizzo used to be:
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/rs39/
“TBD/Unsure. A memorial to those who have died or suffered at the hands of slavery, colonization, incarceration, police/state violence that acknowledges these things have not ended and we need to keep working to end them”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/lld16/
“The mayor. A pretzel.”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/rs243/
“Sun Ra where Rizzo used to be.”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/ns100/
“Slave Revolt Monument: Statue of Nat Turner to commemorate slave insurrectionists”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/ws113/
“6221. This is a bad rendering, but create a monument of MOVE HQ that was bombed by Mayor Goode (I believe). Recreate 6221 Osage Avenue in place of the Rizzo statue.”
Proposed Monuments about police violence
These include calls for a new monument to finally grapple with the legacy of the most famous case of municipal violence in Philadelphia’s recent past: the bombing of the MOVE house on Osage Avenue in 1985.
“Reparations 1/100 ^100. Serves 2 functions: 1. Memorializes black folk murdered by police 2. Offers free counseling and mental healthcare for black folk”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/mx132/
“Black Lives Matter. A mural showing victims of police brutality, or a statue of a black person being held at gunpoint by a white policeman”
“Movin on up.”
“To the fallen. a square of earth smoldering for the legacy of move”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/vp45/
“VP45. Revolutionizing self. Osage Ave A picture of Move Members holding fists. Statue on top of the block.”
Proposed Monuments to Black Philadelphians
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/rs26/
“Nizah Morris. Philly-based trans activist of the 80's. died in police custody”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/ch1032/
“Fannie Jackson Coppin. Wonderful lady! Born a slave, studying in her free time, enrolled in Oberlin. Kicked butt @ school. Moved to Philly to teach, became a principal + the first black superintendent in the U.S.!!!!!!”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/ch677/
“I'd like to see //Rebecca-Rose// do the Long awaited/proposed Dr Martin Luther King monument she designed or redesigned with Sonny Duier who led the naming of West River Drive to Dr. MLK Drive ACTUALLY put on Dr. MLK Drive (see SCOOP USA papers on subject)”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/ch442/
“Harriett Tubman. Part of the underground railroad runs through Eastwick.”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/lll18/
“Sun Ra. Try the Impossible. Sun Ra, band leader, cosmic philosopher, Afro-futrist, proffered many aphorisms, among which was //The possible has already been tried, try the impossible!// The monument would be a statue of Sun Ra with this Question & the planet saturn.”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/ls67/
“Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She's from Philly, created Rock 'N' Roll, was also a QWOC -> S.R.T. jammin' out on her guitar”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/pt131/
“Underground Railroad. Abandoned rail Line - Leads to a room with stories of escaped slaves was told to William Still when they reached Philadelphia
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/mp212/
“MP212. Dizzy Gillespie+John Coltrane (&Jazz). Coltrane is the God of the saxophone. Yet his S.M. house is in shambles (along w/ the rest of the 'hood...). Dizzy transformed the trumpet &'ran' for pres. & he's a Philly boy? How do we honor these world changing & super-spiritual figures in their old home, Philly? I'd feel better knowing they watched over and blessed our city.”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/rs60/
“Free Black Project. A recreation of the first free black neighborhood in Philly. Similar to Brooklyn's Weeksville project.”
https://proposals.monumentlab.com/monuments/rs185/
“RS185. Julian Francis Abel. 1881-1950 Julian Abele was an Architect that worked for Horace Trumabuer Architects, who designed the Art Museum and 400 other notable buildings. He was one of the 1st African American Architects but didn't receive any public recognition until 1988, 38 years after his death!”