I write to support that the City of Richmond provide a cleared palette at the corner of Broad and Adams streets on which a stately statue can stand in full honor and glory to the iconic image of Maggie Lena Walker.

Throughout U.S. history, images of black people have been relegated to dark shadows of honor. I am angered and insulted that a 70-foot tree stands atop the public art site for a woman who has inspired so many in Richmond, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America. Simply put, city officials must understand that the tree and Mrs. Walker’s statue cannot coexist in good conscience. The city must remove the tree. Anything less would be tantamount to lynching the legacy of Maggie L. Walker under tree branches so reminiscent of trees from which my ancestors were hanged, and which inspired Billie Holiday’s moving song, “Strange Fruit.”

Under a large oak tree, Mrs. Walker’s honor would be marginalized and impaired by the branches and shadows of this history. Mrs. Walker has earned her place in the unfettered sun.

The City of Richmond should use this opportunity to establish a cleared space to allow the statue of Maggie Walker to be seen from all angles as a “gateway” to Historic Jackson Ward. In such a space, Richmond can better educate its current residents to the life, and the distinctive community that surrounded the sphere of Mrs. Walker beyond her recognition as the first female and African-American bank president.

Her extraordinary accomplishments were during a period of American history in which African-Americans and women were literally second class citizens. Mrs. Walker was not only an educator, women’s suffragette, newspaper publisher and activist, she was an activist alongside Richmond Planet publisher John Mitchell. Together, they were key forces to organize a successful and historic boycott to protest segregation of Richmond’s trolley cars in 1904. The boycott lasted more than a year and delivered a serious financial blow to the trolley company, forcing it into receivership. This boycott was 50 years before the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that started with the arrest of Rosa Parks.

How did the idea of equating the preservation of a relatively young and historically insignificant tree with a statue of Maggie Walker come about in the first place? Apparently, more than 1,000 people who may be culturally insensitive, unaware or ill-advised signed a petition to preserve the tree. In the same year that black and white people have taken to the streets in American cities protesting the devaluing of black lives and images does Richmond want to be yet another municipality that values the public art images of white citizens higher than those of its black citizens?

I urge a “coalition of conscience” for like-minded citizens to sign a petition online or at Richmond churches to honor Maggie Lena Walker in her full glory as public art representing a cultural historical context that provides a tribute for generations to appreciate and enjoy. To sign the petition is to say, via signature, “It’s not about black and white. It’s about wrong and right.”

GARY L. FLOWERS

Richmond