Free Republic

State lawmakers and local tribal leaders shared details Monday on the plan to replace the toppled statue of missionary Junípero Serra in Sacramento with a monument dedicated to Native American tribes upon whose land California’s state Capitol grounds were built. The new monument will feature William Franklin, a Miwok leader whom Assemblyman James C. Ramos called a “fierce protector and preservationist” of cultural dances and other ceremonies, and who also helped build three Northern California roundhouses. “This monument that will be constructed and put forward here on the state Capitol will start to pave the way for the voices of...

Thomas More Society alleges in a 49-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior Court of the State of California that removing Serra’s name from high school was illegally enacted and based on anti-Catholic animus.The statue of St. Junipero Serra outside the California State Capitol. (Credit: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/flickr)The San Diego Unified School District and one of its school principals targeted the Catholic faith and St. Junípero Serra with an illegal, defamatory campaign to effect removal of St. Serra’s name from a high school in the city’s Tierrasanta neighborhood, the Thomas More Society alleges in a 49-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior...

  THE NATIONAL STATUARY HALL COLLECTION By user:Southgeist [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsOne of the most popular tourist destinations in Washington, D.C. is National Statuary Hall. Also known as the Old Hall of the House, it’s a semicircular gallery immediately south of the Capitol Rotunda. For nearly fifty years—from 1807 through 1857—Statuary Hall served as the meeting place for the House of Representatives. The Hall now houses many of the 100 statues of great Americans (two from each state) which together comprise the National Statuary Hall Collection.It’s an extraordinary honor for the men and women depicted here to have been...