No statue of Andrew Jackson has been taken down. The most prominent effort to remove an Andrew Jackson statue — the June 2020 attempt to pull the Lafayette Square monument from its pedestal — failed, as have a congressional bill, a Mississippi city council vote, and a New Orleans lawsuit aimed at other Jackson statues around the country. Federal law and recent executive orders now make removal of the Washington monument harder than ever.
The 2020 Attempt to Topple the Lafayette Square Statue
On the night of June 22, 2020, during the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, a crowd in Lafayette Square broke through a fence around the Jackson monument, spray-painted “killer” on its base, climbed the sculpture, and tied ropes around Jackson and his horse in an attempt to pull it down.1ABC News. Protesters Attempt to Topple Andrew Jackson Statue Near White House The statue did not come down. U.S. Park Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police, and the Secret Service cleared the area with batons and pepper spray, and several people were arrested.2NBC News. Protesters in D.C.’s Lafayette Square Try to Topple Andrew Jackson Statue
Five days later, the Department of Justice announced federal charges against four men for destruction of federal property.3U.S. Department of Justice. Four Men Charged in Federal Court for Attempting to Tear Down Statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square The National Park Service put up an eight- to nine-foot fence around Lafayette Park and brought in cement barricades.2NBC News. Protesters in D.C.’s Lafayette Square Try to Topple Andrew Jackson Statue
Federal Laws That Protect the Statue
The Jackson monument sits on federal land managed by the National Park Service, and it is a contributing property to the Lafayette Square Historic District, a National Historic Landmark since 1970.4DC Preservation League. Andrew Jackson Statue Two federal statutes carry heavy penalties for damaging it. The Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003 makes it a crime to willfully injure or destroy any statue on federal property that commemorates military service, with a maximum of ten years in prison.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. § 1369 – Destruction of Veterans’ Memorials Separately, 18 U.S.C. § 1361 authorizes up to ten years’ imprisonment for willful injury of any federal property.6Federal Register. Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence
On top of those statutes sit executive orders. President Trump signed Executive Order 13933 on June 26, 2020, directing federal prosecutors to pursue monument vandals and threatening to withhold federal funds from state and local governments that do not protect statues on their own property.7NBC News. Trump Signs Executive Order to Punish Vandalism Against Federal Monuments President Biden revoked that order in May 2021. Trump reinstated it on January 29, 2025, through Executive Order 14189, citing a June 2024 incident in which the Jackson statue was defaced with the phrases “Free Gaza” and “Boycott Israel Products.”8New York Post. Trump Reinstates Executive Order Protecting Monuments to Deter Pro-Hamas-Related Vandalism A follow-up order signed March 27, 2025, instructed the Secretary of the Interior to identify public monuments removed or altered since January 1, 2020, and to reinstate any taken down for what the order calls “improper partisan ideology.”9NPR. Trump Executive Order Targets Smithsonian, Monuments
The Andrew Jackson Statue Removal Act
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia has introduced legislation in Congress to remove the Lafayette Square statue three times. It appeared as H.R. 7465 in the 116th Congress,10Congress.gov. H.R. 7465 – Andrew Jackson Statue Removal Act then as H.R. 1365 in the 117th and H.R. 879 in the 118th.11GovTrack. H.R. 879 – Andrew Jackson Statue Removal Act – Cosponsors
The most recent version would direct the Secretary of the Interior to remove the statue and its marble base from Lafayette Square and donate them to a museum or similar institution. The recipient could not display the statue outdoors; if it did, ownership would revert to the federal government.12GovTrack. H.R. 879 – Andrew Jackson Statue Removal Act – Text Twelve Democrats cosponsored the 118th Congress version, including Representatives André Carson, Steve Cohen, Yvette Clarke, and Bennie Thompson. The bill was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and never advanced to a vote.11GovTrack. H.R. 879 – Andrew Jackson Statue Removal Act – Cosponsors
The Jackson, Mississippi City Council Vote
Local removal efforts have fared no better. On July 7, 2020, the Jackson, Mississippi City Council voted 5-1 to relocate a bronze Jackson statue that has stood outside City Hall since 1972. Councilman Kenneth Stokes introduced the measure. Councilman Ashby Foote cast the only dissenting vote, calling removal of historical statues “counterproductive to an open society.”13WAPT. Jackson Councilman Proposes Moving Andrew Jackson Statue Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba supported the vote, saying the city should “divorce” itself from “the legacy of a brutal owner of enslaved people who was instrumental in initiating the Trail of Tears,” and officials discussed replacing the statue with one of Medgar Evers.14NBC News. Jackson, Mississippi Votes to Remove Statue of President Andrew Jackson From City Hall
Governor Tate Reeves cautioned against the move, citing a state law that generally bars relocating war-related monuments from public property; the mayor countered that the city’s research showed the law allows relocation to “a more appropriate public place.”13WAPT. Jackson Councilman Proposes Moving Andrew Jackson Statue As of June 2026, the statue is still there. The relocation plan has sat in committee for years, with no timeline and no agreed-upon new location. Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay said the council would have to vote the matter out of committee before anything could proceed. Cost is a major obstacle: Foote estimated it at “upward of $1 million.”15Mississippi Free Press. Fate of Capital City’s Andrew Jackson Statue Still Undecided Four Years After Removal Vote
The New Orleans Lawsuit
New Orleans has its own equestrian Jackson statue in Jackson Square. In 2016, as the city removed four Confederate monuments, activists with Take ‘Em Down NOLA called for the Jackson statue to go as well. Richard Marksbury sued to force the city to remove it, but his actual goal was to expose what he saw as inconsistency in the city’s removal policy. In October 2016, Federal Judge Carl Barbier dismissed the suit as an “empty gesture,” finding that Marksbury opposed statue removal and was trying to place the mayor and City Council in a “quandary.”16Biz New Orleans. Judge: Suit to Remove Andrew Jackson Statue ‘Empty Gesture’ The city never moved to remove the Jackson statue.
Why Jackson Is a Target
Jackson’s presidency is most closely tied to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which he made his top legislative priority. The law authorized the forced relocation of Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River. About 88,000 Indigenous people were uprooted, and historians estimate that between 12,000 and 17,000 died in detention camps and on the journeys west. The Cherokee removal of 1838–1839, known as the Trail of Tears, was carried out under his successor Martin Van Buren, but Jackson pushed for Cherokee expulsion throughout his time in office.17National Endowment for the Humanities. Trails of Tears (Plural): What We Don’t Know About Indian Removal
Jackson was also a Tennessee slaveholder. When the Supreme Court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) that Georgia’s laws against the Cherokee were unconstitutional, Jackson is widely reported to have refused to enforce the decision. Supporters of removal cite that record as reason public squares should not celebrate him; opponents argue the statues serve as “primary sources” that force the public to confront rather than erase uncomfortable history.17National Endowment for the Humanities. Trails of Tears (Plural): What We Don’t Know About Indian Removal
Where Things Stand
The Lafayette Square monument is still on its pedestal, now ringed by reinforced barriers and layered federal protections. Norton’s bill has never received a committee hearing. The Trump administration’s reinstated executive orders and the March 2025 directive to restore removed monuments point to a federal posture strongly opposed to further removals. In Jackson, Mississippi, the 2020 council vote has produced no action. For the foreseeable future, the Jackson statues appear to be staying where they are.