Why stop at taking Andrew Jackson off the front of the $20 bill? Let’s destroy his monuments, too.
No one knows why President Andrew Jackson was chosen to front the $20, but he will soon be upstaged on the currency by abolitionist Harriet Tubman, according to an announcement from the Treasury Department Wednesday.
As Vox’s Dylan Matthews points out, Jackson can with good reason be described as “a slaver, ethnic cleanser, and tyrant,” so it’s a little unclear why he should remain on the currency at all. At a time when Americans are removing Confederate flags and renaming things named for Confederate leaders, now seems like a good time to consider reevaluating America’s Jacksonalia.
The problem is, Jackson is everywhere. There are 23 Jackson counties in the U.S., and many more cities and towns. Thirty years before Lincoln did so, Jackson successfully defended Unionism in the face of a nullification crisis, and was duly rewarded both at the time of his presidency and upon his death with dozens of memorials. His presidency also happened to coincide with America’s most rapid period of expansion—which his hateful Indian Removal Act helped facilitate—so his name became especially widespread.
It would thus be difficult to completely efface his name from our maps. But there are a few places we could get started. The four most prominent Jackson memorials, besides the geographic places that are named for him, are the four statues showing Jackson on his horse, Duke, created by the sculptor Clark Mills. The most prominent sits just behind the White House in Lafayette Square—(you can see it in the header of this post). I’ve emailed for comment on whether they would now consider removing it, and will update with a response.
The other three can be found in Jackson Square in New Orleans, the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, and in downtown Jacksonville, Fla. The statue in Jacksonville has been repeatedly defaced, including one instance where a Native American mask was placed on it.
So even before this week’s announcement, removing Jackson-related stuff was on people’s minds. We’ve thus created a map, below, showing where the most prominent physical structures named after him can currently be found, as a starting place. Check it out:
We’ve also made a public spreadsheet which you can help us fill out.
Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.