Anti-racism activists reveal list of monuments they want removed - including Cambridge window

Ronald Fisher (left) and the stained glass window (right). Credit: Wikicommons

Anti-racism protestors have drawn up a "hit list" of dozens of monuments across the country they believe should be removed - including one in Cambridge.

Black Lives Matter supporters have produced an interactive map called ‘Topple the Racists' which identifies where controversial statues and memorials stand.

Members of the public can also put forward their own suggestions.

Campaigners say removing certain statues and monuments would allow Britain to "finally face the truth about its past – and how it shapes our present."

The list includes a stained glass window in Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge which commemorates geneticist and statistician Ronald Fisher.

Although he's widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest scientists, his views on race were highly controversial.

He had particularly strong feelings on eugenics (the improvement of the human race by selective breeding) and famously wrote that civilisations fail because people of “low genetic value” have more children than people with “high genetic value”.

The Rhodes Arts Complex in Bishop's Stortford. Credit: ITV News Anglia

A petition calling for the window to be taken down had reached nearly 1,000 signatures on Wednesday.

Other historical figures singled out on the list include imperialist Cecil Rhodes, who has a theatre named after him in his hometown of Bishop's Stortford, and the Norfolk-born naval commander Horatio Nelson.

The map makes no reference to Nelson's Column in Central London, but does suggest a statue of Nelson outside Deptford Town Hall could be taken down.

Admiral Nelson was described by Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch as a "white supremacist" in 2017.

Activists behind the website insist it is up to individual local authorities whether any statues are removed or not, but hope it will spark debate in committees about what they call the "continued adoration of colonial icons and symbols."

The group say they were inspired by events in Bristol where a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was torn down and thrown in the harbour by protestors on Sunday.