Black pastors decry Bust of racist Planned Parenthood founder at Smithsonian

A group of Black pastors has sent a letter to the Smithsonian asking that they remove the bust of controversial racist Margaret Sanger.

Margaret Sanger Bust

Ministers Taking a Stand addressed their concerns to Ms. Kim Sajet, Director The National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution.

Writing:

We are writing to ask that Margaret Sanger’s likeness be removed from all National Portrait Gallery exhibits. Her bust should not be part of the Gallery’s “Struggle for Justice” exhibit, which honors “great achievements…striking down long-standing segregationist practices and discrimination in American society.”



Ms. Sanger may have been a lot of things, but a “champion of justice” she definitely was not.

Perhaps the Gallery is unaware that Ms. Sanger supported black eugenics, a racist attitude toward black and other minority babies; an elitist attitude toward those she regarded as “the feeble minded;” speaking at rallies of Ku Klux Klan women; and communications with Hitler sympathizers.

Also, the notorious “Negro Project” which sought to limit, if not eliminate, black births, was her brainchild.

The letter also mentions the recent baby parts videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s gruesome organ harvesting operation.

“Until now the national spotlight has not fallen on Sanger’s background. However, the recent revelations about aborted babies’ organs and body parts being sold, have not only brought Planned Parenthood under intense scrutiny, but also raised questions about its founder, Margaret Sanger. If the revelations were not consistent with her character and ideas, one might argue that Planned Parenthood has ‘gone rogue’ and abandoned Sanger. The fact is that the behavior of these abortionists, their callous and cavalier attitude toward these babies, is completely in keeping with Sanger’s perverse vision for America.”

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery catalogs more than 100,000 portrait records from the Catalog of American Portraits (CAP), a survey of American portraits in public and private collections across the United States and abroad.

The CAP encompasses portraits of American subjects or by American artists, generally limited to one-of-a-kind likenesses such as paintings, sculpture, drawings, miniatures, silhouettes, and daguerreotypes.

The Margaret Sanger Bust was made in 1964 a few years before the Planned Parenthood founder died.

The bronze sculpture was created by artist Joy Buba in 1972 and cast after a 1964 original and owned by the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

2009 audio of NPG director Martin Sullivan who explained the portrait to a group visiting the museum said the Bust is located in the “Search for Justice” room which includes César Chávez and heroes of the Mexican revolution among others.

Sanger, who praised by the Klan, was also admired by 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

The Black group said this letter is the first among many efforts to expose the racist Planned Parenthood founder.

“Ironically, Sanger’s bust is featured in the NPG’s “Struggle for Justice” exhibit, alongside two of America’s most celebrated and authentic champions of equal rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks. If Sanger had her way, MLK and Rosa Parks would not have been born ,” the pastors write.

“How can a person like Sanger, who found common cause with the racial agenda of the Ku Klux Klan (“KKK”), be ranked among true champions of “justice?” She was a purveyor of grave injustice against the most vulnerable,” they continued.

Read the full letter here.

The Smithsonian has refused to remove the Bust.

Bishop EW Jackson has suggested ( to Fox) that the Margaret Sanger Bust be placed in exhibits of the Klan or in a “hall of shame.”

“It is equivalent to a Black genocide and she should not be honored at the Smithsonian Gallery,” he said.

A documentary I did the research for that was produced in 2009, called Maafa21, details the racist views of Sanger and is worth viewing.