Cecil Rhodes WILL fall: Oriel College in Oxford opts to remove statue of British colonialist – less than 24 hours after latest protests through the city in wake of BLM movement
The Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford’s Oriel College will be taken down, according to reports.
The college’s governing body today met to discuss the future of the statue, which faces the High Street.
The board has now ‘expressed their wish to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes and the King Edward Street Plaque’, the Oxford Mail reports, but an independent commission into the statue will be set up before any action is taken.
The college said in a statement: ‘Both of these decisions were reached after a thoughtful period of debate and reflection and with the full awareness of the impact these decisions are likely to have in Britain and around the world.’
It added: ‘The Commission will deal with the issue of the Rhodes legacy and how to improve access and attendance of BAME undergraduate, graduate students and faculty, together with a review of how the college’s 21st Century commitment to diversity can sit more easily with its past.’
The Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford’s Oriel College will be taken down, according to reports
The board has now ‘expressed their wish to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes and the King Edward Street Plaque’ (pictured: Protesters today)
It comes after the campaign to remove the controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes from an Oxford college had been called ‘short-sighted’ by the universities minister.
Michelle Donelan said we should ‘remember and learn’ from history rather than ‘edit’ the past.
Her comments came after protesters renewed calls for the statue of the British imperialist to be taken down from Oriel College at Oxford University.
When asked about the Black Lives Matter movement and whether universities could do more to tackle equality issues, Ms Donelan said she agreed with the Prime Minister that we ‘should not seek to censor or edit our past’.
Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), she said: ‘Recent actions, such as renaming buildings named after Gladstone or campaigns to remove the statue of Rhodes, I think, are quite short-sighted.
Protesters in Oxford for the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes. 16/06/20
A statue of Cecil Rhodes, top centre, the controversial Victorian imperialist, stands mounted on the facade of Oriel College in Oxford
‘Because if we cannot rewrite our history, instead what we should do is remember and learn from it.’
Last week, the University of Liverpool announced that a hall named after former prime minister William Gladstone would change after students pointed out his links to the slave trade.
In a letter in the Daily Telegraph, a group of Oxford professors criticised the university vice-chancellor’s response to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.
Professor Louise Richardson, vice-chancellor of Oxford, told the BBC that ‘hiding our history is not the route to enlightenment’.
But the academics argue in the letter that the ‘opposite is true’, adding that it is ‘a full and frank accounting for Britain’s history’ that was being demanded.
Demonstrations have taken place outside Oriel College calling for the statue to be removed from the High Street entrance of the building, as well as protesting against racism following the death of George Floyd in the US.
An Oriel College spokesman said: ‘The governing body and all concerned parties at Oriel College are fully aware of the responsibility they hold with regard to both the Rhodes statue and wider issues under discussion, and they will of course talk about this during their upcoming scheduled meeting.’