A memorial at R. F. K. Stadium and a statue outside Target Field honored former team owners. “We cannot remain silent,” the Twins said.
A memorial for the former N. F. L. owner George Preston Marshall in Washington and a statue of the former baseball owner Calvin Griffith in Minneapolis were removed on Friday as cities and franchises continued to reckon with the legacies of figures from their racist pasts.
The memorial for Marshall, whose team was the last in the N. F. L. to sign a black player and did so only after a government ultimatum, was removed from the spot where it had stood outside of R. F. K. Stadium by a city agency. It had been defaced overnight with red spray paint.
The Minnesota Twins said they had removed a statue of Griffith, which had stood outside Target Field since 2010, because of infamous remarks he had made about African-Americans in 1978.
The removals occurred on Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
Events DC, the agency that manages the stadium site, confirmed that the Marshall monument was being permanently removed.
“This symbol of a person who didn’t believe all men and women were created equal and who actually worked against integration is counter to all that we as people, a city, and nation represent,” Max Brown, the Events DC chairman, said in a statement.
Marshall moved the team to Washington from Boston, where they had been known as the Braves, in 1937. His team was the last in the league to sign a black player, doing so in 1962 only after heavy pressure from the federal government, which threatened to revoke the team’s lease on its stadium.
