By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – A black curtain now covers the Stephen Douglas portrait in the Illinois House chamber, and an art expert is okay with that – and with removing statues of slave owners Douglas and Pierre Menard from the Capitol grounds in Springfield.

Mark Pohlad, associate professor of art history, DePaul University, says the statues and portraits don’t really mean that much artistically, and removing them does not erase history.

“After a couple of hundred years of oppression and discrimination and groups that feel like their voices haven’t been heard, or they have to live with these monuments,” Pohlad said, “finally it’s gotten to the point where we have to examine: why is this statue in this neighborhood, who has to look at it, and why was it put there?”

For example, a Douglas statue towers over Bronzeville, seemingly looking down upon thousands of Blacks.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].