A statue of Delaware founding father Caesar Rodney faces an undefined future, once its stint as part of a display in DC for America’s semi-quincentennial ends.
The statue was removed from its location in Wilmington in 2020, along with a Christopher Columbus statue from Delaware Ave. They’re among numerous monuments removed between 2020-2021across the United States, during a nationwide reckoning with race and inequality, particularly following the murder of George Floyd.
The Caesar Rodney statue was in storage until April this year, when it was transported to DC by the National Parks Service.
It will be there for approximately six months, according to State Senator Eric Buckson (R-Dover South). He's led an effort to bring the statue out of storage since 2022 when he was a Kent County Levy Court commissioner.
“You can't hide from uncomfortable facts,” Buckson said. “You should run to the facts, you should tell the history and all its imperfections that ensures that the complete story is told.”
Rodney is a signee of the Declaration of Independence and is known for riding through the night of July 1, 1776, to cast the deciding vote declaring the U.S. independent from Great Britain. Rodney was also a slave owner, growing upon and later running the 849-acre Byfield plantation in Kent County, which ran on the labor of around 200 enslaved people.
Buckson said a group of officials from state agencies, the City of Wilmington, City of Dover, and Kent County government. have met to discuss possible locations over the last year, and Wilmington’s representatives are receptive to the statue being installed in another part of the state. But the group has not been granted official authority. Buckson introduced a resolution on the issue which was put on hold last year.
Along with the group to decide on a possible location, Buckson thinks there should be a second group, “that can best decide how to display the history, because it's going to be important that you tell the historical significance of Caesar Rodney in all his imperfections, and that must include slavery, slave ownership, and what it meant back then.”
Buckson’s suggested in front of Legislative Hall in Dover as a possible location for the statue. But he said location and display should be up to designated groups.
"The committee....would be tasked with deciding that. I know there's others who would like to see it in different locations, whether it's in Kent County or somewhere else in the state," said Buckson. "I think the decision to put it back in Wilmington and Rodney Square is a decision that's already been made that that's not going to happen. So, let's move forward.
Gov. Matt Meyer said in interviews earlier this year that he is not against the Caesar Rodney statue’s public display in Delaware, so long as it includes an equitable description and context of his place in history.
Community and City Council discussion in Wilmington re-emerged this year on the Columbus statue. Plans for its display have not been announced.
