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Confederate portraits flagged for removal by Pelosi ahead of Juneteenth

Depictions of four former speakers will no longer hang in the Capitol

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered the removal in the Capitol of portraits of former speakers who served in the Confederacy.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered the removal in the Capitol of portraits of former speakers who served in the Confederacy. (Tom Williams/Roll Call)

Portraits of former House speakers who served in the Confederacy will no longer hang in the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday.

The California Democrat sent a letter to House Clerk Cheryl Johnson, requesting the removal of four portraits, a move that follows her call earlier this month for the removal of Confederate statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection.

In a media advisory, Pelosi said the portraits would be taken down from public display at 4:30 p.m. Thursday with Johnson present to oversee their removal.

[Pelosi wants 11 Confederate statues removed from Capitol]

“As I have said before, the halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy. There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy,” Pelosi wrote in her letter to Johnson.

The four speakers whose portraits are coming down include Robert Hunter of Virginia, Howell Cobb of Georgia, James Orr of South Carolina and Charles Crisp of Georgia. Hunter, Cobb and Orr all served as speaker before the Civil War and the secession of the Confederate States of America. Crisp served as speaker years after the war in the 1890s.

“We didn’t know about this until we were taking inventory of the statues and the curator told us that there were four paintings of speakers in the Capitol of the United States, four speakers who had served in the Confederacy,” Pelosi said Thursday at her weekly news briefing.

She had initially said at the briefing that the portraits would be removed on Friday, when the nation marks Juneteenth. The observance dates back to June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed the black population there of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Pelosi’s call for action on the Capitol portraits and statues comes as uprisings and protests continue across the country against police killings of black people.

“The portraits of these men are symbols that set back our nation’s work to confront and combat bigotry,” she wrote to Johnson. “Our Congressional community has the sacred opportunity and obligation to make meaningful change to ensure that the halls of Congress reflect our highest ideals as Americans. Let us lead by example.”

Confederates are not the first to have their portraits removed from the Capitol. In 2015, Speaker Paul D. Ryan removed former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s portrait from the Speaker’s Lobby after the Illinois Republican pleaded guilty to a hush money scheme covering up sexual misconduct.

There are also discussions on Capitol Hill and at the Defense Department about renaming military bases that honor Confederates. President Donald Trump has said he would not consider renaming any military bases that derive from Confederate figures.

[Senate GOP leaders buck Trump on base names]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday he is open to the changes, noting as an aside that he is descended from a Confederate veteran.

“I can only speak for myself on this issue, if it’s appropriate to take another look at these names, I’m personally OK with that,” the Kentucky Republican said.

While he does not agree with Pelosi’s earlier moves to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol, he has not yet weighed in on the portraits of former speakers.

“What I do think is clearly a bridge too far is this nonsense that we need to airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody from years ago, who had any connection to slavery,” McConnell said Tuesday.

Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.

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