CNN; Published By Dakin Andone
Washington National Cathedral on Saturday revealed four new “racial-justice themed” stained-glass windows to replace others honoring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
The new windows are titled “Now and Forever” and show demonstrators during a march or protest. Some demonstrators carry signs that say “Fairness” and “No Foul Play” as the group marches across the four windows.
“Today’s event has been organized to highlight one instance where a change of symbolism is meant to repair a breach of America’s creation promise of liberty and justice for all,” Kerry James Marshall, the artist who designed the windows, said at the dedication.
The windows “reinforce those ideals and aspirations embodied in the Cathedral’s structure and its mission to remind us that we can be better, and do better than we did yesterday, today,” said Marshall, a MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient known for depictions of Black lives.
It was a moment that had been years in the making.
The cathedral belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of Washington but is often used for national services. Leaders first began considering replacing the windows in 2015, when then-Dean Gary Hall called for their removal after a White supremacist fatally shot nine Black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina. Read more
