We need to build statues honoring Black people | READER COMMENTARY

The time has come to end tearing down memorial statues (”Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy brought down, tossed into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor,” July 4) and to begin erecting new ones depicting more deserving Marylanders.

To begin with, why not place a memorial to Thurgood Marshall in front of the State House? He was everything that Taney was not. So many possibilities exist. Dr. King needs a statue in Maryland. A boulevard is fine, but a statue brings him to us so much better. Baltimore was a center of early civil rights struggles, but we do not recognize those who made it so.

It seems very fitting to have a monument to African American women whose daily struggles should be honored. And there should be a memorial to all of the decent Black victims of violence in our state regardless of their killers. We need to remember them. It is a good time to redirect our effort.

Ronald Hickernell, Catonsville

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.