Charles Sumner - Cambridge, MA - Civil Rights Memorials on Waymarking.com

A 7'by 3.25' by 4.75' bronze sculpture of the abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts Charles Sumner is set on a 4.75' by 4.5' x 52 by 5.75' concrete base decorated with an oak leaf frieze near the top. Charles Sumner is depicted seated in a chair. He is wearing a suit with a vest and a bow tie. A jacket is draped over the back of the chair. His right hand is resting on his lap and he is holding a partially open book in his right hand. His left hand is holding onto the right side of seat of the chair.

The sculpture was created by Anne Whitney and cast at the Chicopee Bronze Works in 1902. SUMNER is inscribed on front of base, in a recessed rectangle, in bronze letters.

Charles Sumner was born in Boston, MA on January 6, 1811. He attended Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. His oratory skills enabled him to become a successful politician. He was a staunch abolitionist, vehemently opposing the Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In 1851 he was chosen to be senator from Massachusetts, succeeding Daniel Webster.

In the Senate, Charles Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces as the leader of the Radical Republicans. He advocated the destruction of the Confederacy and freedom for all slaves. In 1856, he was nearly killed on the floor of the senate by South Carolina Congressman, Preston Brooks because of his anti-slavery speech "The Crime against Kansas". As a Radical Republican he criticized President Abraham Lincoln for being too moderate on the South. Nonetheless, he worked closely with Lincoln to keep the British and the French from intervening on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

During Reconstruction, 1865–1871, Sumner fought for equal civil rights for the freed slaves. He joined House leader Thaddeus Stevens to oppose Andrew Johnson's reconstruction plans as being too moderate. He died in office of a heart attack on March 11, 1874.