Duke Screwed Over?
Not Duke University, but DC’s own Duke Ellington. WTOP News is reporting that the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities ignored the public vote on which famous DC residents to put into statue form in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Each of the states gets to choose two statues of famous residents, and the District has managed to be a part of that group. However, the DC Commission ignored the popular vote (which selected Frederick Douglass and Duke Ellington) and have chosen their own two figures to be memorialized: Frederick Douglass and Pierre L’Enfant.
Of course, the criteria for candidates included being a citizen of the United States, which promptly rules out L’Enfant because he was a French citizen. But, since they’re throwing out the public vote in favor of their own private ballot, it really doesn’t matter.
Want to speak up about this gross miscarriage of statuary justice? Drop them an Email or better, call them up at 202.724.5613 and tell them that we want Duke Ellington instead of Pierre Had to Have Funky Diagonal Streets To Confuse the Tourists and Cabbies.
Welllllllll…there’s an interesting question, as to whether Pierre L’Enfant was a US citizen. After all, he did emigrate to the US with Lafayette, served in the Revolutionary War and stayed in the US afterwards (dying in Maryland in the 1820’s). I’d say, he foiught for the country,, stayd in the country – he could certainly be considered a citizen of the US.