British port cities grew wealthy transporting slaves to the Americas. On 7 June Bristol protesters tore down a statue of a slave trader whose company branded its victims with the company’s initials on their chests. Unfortunately on a weekend that marked the anniversary of D-Day, Sir Winston Churchill’s statue was also defaced as agitators chanted, ‘Churchill is a racist’; and at the Cenotaph, a monument to those who died for free speech and democracy, a protester tried to set fire to the Union Flag. Pray that Black Lives Matter marches are not muddled with wilful criminal damage. The government has been accused of appalling treatment of British Caribbean citizens who came to rebuild Britain after World War II. Sadiq Khan and many others are calling for all statues and street names linked to slavery to be taken down. The first to fall was a statue of slaveholder Robert Milligan at Docklands.
Demonstrations and democracy
Written by David Fletcher 11 Jun 2020Additional Info
- Pray: that as social and economic structures are upset, leaders and society will reorder attitudes and actions in a just and equal manner. (Deuteronomy 26:7)
- More: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52977088
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