Portraits of former Confederate leaders removed from Capitol

WASHINGTON — Portraits honoring four former House speakers who served in the Confederacy were removed Thursday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the men “embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy.”

Pelosi directed the House clerk to oversee the immediate removal of portraits depicting former speakers from three Southern states: Robert Hunter of Virginia, James Orr of South Carolina and Howell Cobb and Charles Crisp, both of Georgia.

Calling the halls of Congress “the very heart of our democracy,” Pelosi said, “There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor” to commemorate the Confederacy.

Hours later, the portraits were gone, taken away by workers and placed in storage. The ornately framed portraits had hung outside the House chamber for decades, barely noticed by lawmakers, staffers and journalists who crowded into the carpeted Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the chamber.

Pelosi noted that today is Juneteenth, honoring the day in 1865 when many African Americans learned of the end of slavery after the Civil War. She called Juneteenth “a beautiful and proud celebration of freedom for African Americans” and noted that this year’s celebration comes “during a moment of extraordinary national anguish, as we grieve for the hundreds of Black Americans killed by racial injustice and police brutality, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others.”