COLUMBUS Ohio
Lawmakers want schoolchildren to help recommend a new statue of a famous Ohioan to represent the state in the U.S. Capitol.
The recommendations will help lawmakers decide who should replace a statue of William Allen, a 19th century congressman and Ohio governor who portrayed blacks as savages and supported the rights of Southern slave owners.
Allen is one of two Ohioans in the National Statuary Hall, a large semicircular room in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., that honors historic figures from each state. Ohio donated Allen’s statue to the Capitol’s collection in 1887, where it joined that of James Garfield, the nation’s 20th president, who was assassinated in 1881.
“We figured it was probably time to bring Gov. Allen back home to Ohio and pick someone who better embodies the spirit of our state for the Capitol,” said state Rep. Mark Wagoner, a Republican from Toledo who is a member of a committee seeking to replace the statue.
Possibilities for new statues abound in Ohio’s rich history, Wagoner said.
Olympic gold medal winner Jesse Owens or Toledo’s Michael Owens, who created a glass bottling empire that employed much of the northwestern part of the state in the early 1900s, are just a few examples, Wagoner said.
