Washington National Cathedral unveiled its new racial-justice-themed stained glass windows over the weekend to replace the previous depictions honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, which were removed in 2017.
The Cathedral argues the new windows, entitled “Now and Forever,” depict protestors holding placards that read “no foul play” and “fairness” and were introduced to signify a “new chapter” in the monument’s artistic and architectural legacy.
The previous stained glass windows of generals Lee and Jackson were described by the Cathedral as “offensive” and “a barrier to the ministry of this cathedral,” according to the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, explained during Saturday’s unveiling.
“[T]oday is an opportunity to recommit ourselves, and to recommit this Cathedral, to join that march toward fairness for all Americans, but especially for African Americans,” Rev. Hollerith continued.
“There is a lot of work yet to be done to confront systemic racism, to foster racial reconciliation and to be repairers of the breach, both in the past, the present and in our future,” he added.
The “artist” responsible for the windows, Kerry James Marshall, unveiled his work in a similarly racially-charged speech by comparing the Biblical fall of humanity with the creation of America and stated the event highlighted “one instance where a change of symbolism is meant to repair a breach of America’s creation promise of liberty and justice for all.”
Those funding and supporting the project included the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and Steven Spielberg’s Heartland Foundation.
