Washington, D.C. — A group of black leaders outside the National Portrait Gallery in the nation’s capital called for the removal of a bust of Margaret Sanger this week, noting that she was openly racist against blacks and a proponent of eugenics. As the black leaders did so, a white woman walked by yelling an epithet that we can’t print at The Stream. 

The group of more than 20 leaders, led by Bishop E.W. Jackson, presented a petition signed by more than 14,000 people asking the museum’s curator to remove the bust of Sanger from the museum’s “Stand for Justice” wing, calling the bust’s presence there an affront to civil rights.

“Planned Parenthood is nothing more than a euphemism for planned death for the people that Margaret Sanger thought should not exist,” Jackson said. “And to think that her bust sits alongside of MLK and Rosa Parks? If Margaret Sanger had her way, MLK and Rosa Parks would never have been born.”

Jackson continued, quoting from Sanger’s own words:

In her book, The Pivot of Civilization, she said this: ‘Our civilization has bred, is breeding, and is perpetuating constantly increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents, and dependents.’ Margaret Sanger appropriately spoke to the Ku Klux Klan because they appreciated the things she was saying. And it’s an outrage that the National Museum would honor such a person, and add insult to injury by putting her in the ‘Struggle for Justice’ exhibit.

The National Portrait Gallery responded to his letter by telling him that “Sanger is included because she strived to bring medical advice and affordable birth control to disadvantaged women.” He told the crowd: “She was not interested in helping them! She was interested in getting rid of them. She thought they weren’t worthy of life.”

Officials at the National Portrait Gallery say they won’t remove the bust, which has been on display since 2010. A spokesperson for the gallery told the AP that the museum’s displays include some people with “less than admirable characteristics.”

When that comment was relayed to the crowd this morning, there was palpable outrage. A recurring point in the remarks by several speakers, including Ryan Bomberger of Radiance Foundation and Dr. Leon Threatt of Joy Christian Fellowship, was that abortion in America falls disproportionately on on black communities, which they connected to Sanger’s racism and her practice of often locating Planned Parenthood clinics in black communities.

“Margaret Sanger is responsible for the lives of 285,000 black babies every year,” Bishop Jackson said. “She would dance in the museum” if she were alive to see the effect on the black population.

Threatt told the crowd that his greatest hope was that “the spirit of Margaret Sanger would be lifted off of this nation by removing, first of all, the bust out of this museum.”

“The first leading cause of death of an African-American in America is abortion. The second leading cause of death of an African-American is black-on-black crime. And I believe that hatred that was in Margaret Sanger permeates and reigns in our communities of color. That spirit must be removed.”

He continued: “Margaret Sanger was no champion for human rights. Margaret Sanger was no champion for women’s rights. And Margaret Sanger is no champion for civil rights at all.”

Several speakers addressed the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol and insisted it was also time to remove the bust. At one point they directed a chant at the National Portrait Gallery’s curator: “You must remove the bust!”

Ken Blackwell, former ambassador to the UN, likened the moment to Ronald Reagan’s demand that Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall.” “Our message is just as steeped in human rights,” Blackwell said.