Our Edwardsville

Two historians discuss Ninian Edwards' significance to the history of Illinois amid the ongoing efforts in Edwardsville to remove a statue of the city’s namesake.

Some residents in the city had asked for the bronze depiction of Ninian Edwards to be removed entirely because he owned enslaved people.

A controversial bronze statue of Ninian Edwards will, for the time being, remain where it is installed, in a small plaza near Edwardsville's city center. The statue, the plaza and Edwards’ slavery legacy became the focus of protests during the global Black Lives Matter movement this summer.