Lincoln statue vandalized amid calls to rename namesake school, California cops say

A statue of Abraham Lincoln was vandalized in San Francisco as a school district committee pushes for the renaming of Lincoln High School and others, authorities said.

Deputies responded to a call about the incident at 12:55 p.m. Saturday, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department told McClatchy News in an email. The suspect had fled before deputies arrived, according to the department.

The statue has been restored and deputies are still investigating.

A photo shows the statue’s face painted red along with the engraved name at its base. Christopher Beale, a journalist based in San Francisco, posted the photo along with a blog about Lincoln’s history on Medium.

“I was walking by City Hall Sunday morning when I saw it — the statue of the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln had its face painted red,” Beale wrote. “As of yet, we don’t know who vandalized the statue, but history may give us a clue as to why.”

Beale added more context to “the Great Emancipator’s” background, including several policy decisions that contributed to the “genocide of Native American peoples,” according to Beale.

A San Francisco school district renaming committee has recommended 44 schools in the San Francisco area be renamed due to the namesakes’ history of “connections to slavery, genocide or oppression,” including Lincoln’s, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in mid December.

Besides Lincoln, other school names recommended for renaming include George Washington and Diane Feinstein, a U.S. senator and former mayor of San Francisco.

Jeremiah Jeffries, a first grade teacher and chairman of the committee, said the task force members were all in agreement about renaming the school, according to SF Gate. The recommendation has captured national attention, including President Trump’s, the outlet reported.

“The history of Lincoln and Native Americans is complicated, not nearly as well known as that of the Civil War and slavery,” said Jeffries, according to SF Gate. “Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that Black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building.”

Monuments dedicated to historical figures associated with slavery or genocide have become the target of some groups and many have been taken down or vandalized across the country, National Geographic reported. San Francisco has seen several instances of vandalism as the debate over historical monuments has intensified since summer.