NEW YORK — An 1833 statue of Thomas Jefferson will be removed from New York's City Council chamber by the end of the year.
Some members of the City Council have demanded the statue's removal for years because Jefferson was a slaveholder.
But the little-known city commission that held a public hearing on the 7-foot statue on Monday did not decide where it will go.
The Public Design Commission waited to approve a plan to send the statue to the New-York Historical Society as a long-term loan.
That's after some participants at a virtual hearing said it should be moved to a different room in City Hall instead.
Councilman Joseph Borelli of Staten Island said this is cancel culture at work.
"I wish this would go to some sort of a referendum or polling because I think the majority of New Yorkers would disagree with this. I think the Bill of Rights, for example, has worked out pretty well for New Yorkers over the past 225 years," Borelli said.
Todd Fine, a historian, suggests in a letter signed by other academics, that the statue be relocated to the governor's room at City Hall.
"It was a gift to the city by a Jewish naval officer in honor of Jefferson's position on religious freedom. It should stay in the building," Fine said.
Portions of this article courtesy of CNN Newsource
