State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover South) is looking to bring back the Caesar Rodney statue for the United States’ 250th anniversary — five years after its removal from Rodney Square in Wilmington.
Sen. Buckson says in his conversations with state leaders, the statue is unlikely to return to Rodney Square, so he is looking to relocate the statue to Kent County where Rodney grew up and lived.
The Caesar Rodney Equestrian statue was removed from Rodney Square in Wilmington in 2020, along with a Christopher Columbus Statue from Delaware Ave., during a nationwide reckoning with race and inequality, particularly following the murder of George Floyd.
Rodney holds the record for most public offices held in Delaware, is a signee of the Declaration of Independence and is best known for riding horseback through the night of July 1, 1776, to cast the deciding vote declaring the U.S. independent from Great Britain.
But Rodney was also a slave owner, growing up on and later running the 849-acre Byfield plantation in Kent County, which ran on the labor of around 200 slaves.
Sen. Buckson says while Rodney’s history is not untainted, he feels it’s important to share his story with the new generation of Delawareans, particularly ahead of the nation’s semiquincentennial.
“The statue and the story of Caesar Rodney that includes his famous ride should also include the complexities of what it meant to live back then as the Caesar Rodney, right and wrong, and we should be able to talk about it and tell it and not hide from it or ignore it," Sen. Buckson said.
His efforts to bring the statue out of storage began in 2022 while serving as a Kent County Levy Court commissioner — Sen. Buckson says the statue was initially stored in a facility in New Jersey and now resides at a storage location in New Castle County.
He says he's had conversations with former Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, former governor and now-Mayor of Wilmington John Carney, Gov. Matt Meyer, as well as various stakeholders, lawmakers and members of the Delaware Legislative Black Caucus.
While Buckson says its tricky to speak on other's behalf, he feels he's detected a split of opinion on bringing the statue back in the political sphere, but he feels there is more widespread support among the public.
“The only ones that I've not had conversations with is the general public, and that's why I felt compelled to release the resolution because the general public wasn't being brought into the conversation, and for me that matters.”
Buckson is referring to a resolution he introduced in the General Assembly to officially request the statue’s move to either The Green in Dover, the John Dickinson Plantation or another appropriate location.
"I think that we need to find a suitable location in Kent County under a timeline that makes that happen prior to July 4, 2026," Sen. Buckson said. "The conversation is how best to tell history. The intent is to do just that, to tell history in all its imperfections, and if the identified locations aren’t suitable, that’s why in the resolution it says 'or another suitable location.' It’s not for me to decide where it goes — It can go on public land, it can go on private land. I can tell you where I’d prefer it, but the reality, is at the end of the day, the thing I most prefer is that the statue is not in storage at the time we celebrate this country’s 250th anniversary. That’s the key for me."
Sen. Buckson is a member of the state's budget-writing body known as the Joint Finance Committee, and he says with an allocation of $250,000 pending approval to go towards the semiquincentennial celebration in July 2026, having the statue remain in storage "didn't sit right" with him.
He says he is still gauging lawmaker support and does not yet know when he will request the resolution be brought forward for consideration.
