Hampton University, a historically Black University in Virginia, revealed the newest addition to their campus, Legacy Park, with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday.
Legacy Park is located between Hampton’s Memorial Church and Ogden Hall. The area contains statues to honor people said to have supported the university’s mission over the last 150 years such as Mary Jackson, the first Black female NASA engineer, Frederick Douglass and U.S. presidents William Howard Taft, Barack Obama and George H.W. Bush.
However Bush’s statue is raising a few eyebrows for some due to his complicated legacy on race issues.
I would like to know what George Bush did for Hampton to deserve a statue of himself
MadisonSimone (@MadisonSimone2) January 28, 2019
“President Bush demonstrated a long-standing support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities over his career,” the university said, in a press release.
The 41st U.S. president died on Nov. 30.
“I believe in giving people their credit when it is due,” Hampton’s President Dr. William R. Harvey said in December. “President Bush was not only a good friend of mine, but he was an extraordinary person who believed it was crucial that African Americans have access to education. I think that’s something that we must acknowledge.”
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) said in a
statement in December:
“George H.W. Bush was fully committed to UNCF’s mission to increase the number of African American college graduates and to preserve Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
But Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley noted that Bush did partake in “dog whistle” politics.
“Intellectually and emotionally, he was somebody who was civil rights-minded,” Brinkley
told PBS News Hour. “Bush wanted to see himself as being a man devoid of racism. But the reality is that Bush often had to do dog whistles and appeal to less enlightened Americans on race.”
When running for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, he came out against the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. But later regretted it. Bush joined a group of moderate Republicans to support civil rights legislation and voted in favor of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, as a freshman Texas congressman.
During Bush’s 1988 bid for the presidency, the Willie Horton ad put out by a conservative PAC stoked racial stereotypes in regard to criminal justice in order to portray Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the Democratic opponent, as soft on crime. The ad highlighted Horton a convicted murderer who raped a white woman when he was out on a furlough program that Dukakis supported.
Though the Bush campaign didn’t technically put out the ad, Bush repeatedly brought up Horton’s name in speeches.
Rev. Jesse Jackson said that Bush regretted promoting the Willie Horton strategy.
“It was out of character for him,” Jackson told PBS. “He did it in the heat of battle.”
In 1991, Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to replace the retiring Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American on the Supreme Court; and Thomas went on to rule against affirmative action.
Bush wound up not supporting his party in 2016 because he did not endorse fellow Republican Donald Trump in the presidential election.
Twitter users, including Hampton alumni, are voicing their objection or support of the statue on campus:
I’m thinking Hampton erecting a statue of George Bush would be an emphatic way to settle the “Howard vs. Hampton” debate once and for all.
Ja’han Jones (@_Jahan)
January 28, 2019
Hol up, hol up, HOLD UP. You mean to tell me Hampton University has a bronze statue of George Bush on campus!! Wtf been going on since I left
Positive Brotha Hakeem (@ThatMan_JC)
January 28, 2019
Yeah the same GW that started the flow of drugs into the urban community to fund the Iran-Contra You mean the guy who sold arms to Afghanistan and trained Bin Laden Boyyyyyyyyyyy. Yeah put his statue right next to Andrew Jackson’s and Robert E. Lee lol.
pic.twitter.com/hn4arMJBsH
Taurean Meacham (@polosandclarks)
January 28, 2019
Attention Hampton University Students PLEASE do your research on President George H. W. Bush! He deserves his statue at Hampton University just like everyone else who has one! While he was President over $118 millions was given to HBCU’S
https://t.co/HCbmybMuDv
Devinn Smart (@Iamdevinnsmart)
January 28, 2019