Using Twitter to Create Black-positive Monument List

When friends and family find out I use Twitter daily, they often ask: “But what is it good for?” I finally have a good answer to this!

On 30 May 2017, I responded to a tweet from Brittany Packnett, who has almost 75K Twitter followers and describes herself as: “#BlackWomenAtWork. Educator. Activist. Speaker. Writer. @BuildLovePower creator. @TeachForAmerica VP. #CampaignZero Co-Founder. Obama Appointee. Thoughts mine.” We asked for suggestions for a list of Black-positive monuments in the US. Within a short time, there were dozens of replies and suggestions.

That’s something I love about Twitter – getting the word out very fast and collecting information and suggestions fast from a vast and often well-informed audience.

Here is the list (so far) of Black-positive Monuments in the US.*  What would you add?

• Muhammad Ali – Louisville, KY.
• Arthur Ashe – Richmond, VA.
• Crispus Attucks — Boston, MA.
• George Washington Carver — Newton County, MO.
• Frederick Douglass – Harlem, NY.
• W.E.B. Dubois — Nashville, TN.
• Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable – Chicago, IL.
• Medgar Evers — Lorman, MS, and another in Jackson, MS.
• Billie Holiday (by African-American sculptor James Earl Reid) – in Baltimore, MD.
• Barbara Jordan – Austin, TX.
• Martin Luther King — Washington, D.C., and another in Birmingham, AL.
• Joe Louis — Detroit, MI.
• Thurgood Marshall – Baltimore, MD.
• John Mitchell – Richmond, VA.
• Olympic Black Power – San Jose, CA.
• Rosa Parks – Washington, D.C.
• Adam Clayton Powell — Harlem, NY.
• Colin Powell – New York, NY.
• Remember Them – group monument, including: The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Maya Angelou, Susan B. Anthony, Ruby Bridges, Cesar Chavez, Chief Joseph, Sir Winston Churchill, Frederick Douglass, Shirin Ebadi, Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Keller, Coretta Scott King, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Harvey Milk, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Oskar Schindler, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, The Unknown Rebel of Tiananmen Square, Elie Wiesel, and Malcolm X – Oakland, CA.
• Tupac Shakur — Atlanta, GA.
• Harriet Tubman — Harlem, NY, and another in Boston, MA.
• Maggie Walker – Richmond, VA.
• Malcolm X — Harlem, NY.
• Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers – Wilberforce. OH.

*updated 12 June 2017 to include Thurgood Marshall, John Mitchell, and Maggie Walker.

Updated 29 June 2020 to fix links.

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