Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger does not belong beside Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the “Struggle for Justice” exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in the nation’s capital. So say Ministers Taking a Stand, a group of black pastors who are asking the gallery to remove a portrait bust of Sanger, and rallied for the cause outside the facility on Thursday.
The group has drawn support from Texas Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Louis Gohmert, who have circulated a letter among Congressional colleagues supporting the pastors’ request.
Star Parker, leader of Center for Urban Renewal and Education, joined Bishop E.W. Jackson, his organization STAND, pro-life leaders, and black clergy, on Thursday.
They requested the “the taxpayer-funded museum remove the bust of racist Margaret Sanger,” founder of Planned Parenthood.
“Her goal was to eliminate the black race and there’s no room to celebrate her, especially in a ’Struggle for Justice’ exhibit!,” Ms. Parker said Thursday.
“Margaret Sanger may have been a lot of things, but a crusader for justice she was not. Sanger saw ’birth control,’ not as a means of helping ’disadvantaged women,’ but of eradicating them. She likened ’colored people’ to ’human weeds.’ She was a zealous proponent of the ideology of the American eugenics movement, and was at home in the company of the movement’s most radical elements,” the pastor’s group noted in a public petition that has already drawn 13,500 signatures.
The portrait gallery is part of the Smithsonian Institute’s museum group, and has “respectfully declined” the pastors’ request that the portrait of Sanger be removed.
“There is no ‘moral test’ for people to be accepted into the National Portrait Gallery. Instead, we try to draw attention to those who have made a significant impact on American history and culture, and that includes both the accomplished and reprehensible. We recognize Sanger’s advocacy on behalf of women’s health and education whilst acknowledging her sometimes deplorable beliefs,” wrote gallery director Kim Sajet in an Aug. 19 response letter to Mr. Jackson, founder of Ministers Taking a Stand and president of the non-profit group STAND (Staying True to America’s National Destiny).
The Thursday morning rally outside the gallery had a speakers’ roster including 10 pastors, along with Family Research Council fellow Kenneth Blackwell, For America founder Brent Bozell, Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser and Live Action director Lila Rose, among others.
“The museum’s response so far has been unserious and disrespectful. They say they are simply acknowledging Sanger’s contribution to affordable contracep- tives for poor women, not making her a hero,” Mr. Jackson said in an outreach letter.
“But displaying her bust in a ’Struggle for Justice’ exhibit alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks is calling her a hero. Sanger was no hero. Her motive was not to help poor women, but to stop them from having children that she didn’t believe were fit to live. She saw them as defective,” the bishop noted.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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