WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2020) The portraits of four former House leaders who joined the Confederacy during the civil war will be removed from the US Capitol on Friday, the "Juneteenth" holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.
"I have sent a letter to the [House] Clerk to remove the portraits of four Speakers of the House who served in the Confederacy," Pelosi told a press conference. "Tomorrow the clerk will oversee the removal."
The former men Robert Hunter, James Orr, Howell Cobb and Charles Crisp, served as speaker in terms during the period from 1839 to 1895.
"There is no room in this temple of democracy to memorialize [the] violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy... We must lead by example," she said.
Pelosi said she and other congressional leaders had been unaware of the existence of the portraits until an inventory of statues and other art in the Capitol was taken.
