A STATUE of colonialist Cecil Rhodes in Oxford “should be taken down,” the vice-chancellor of London’s Soas university said today.
Baroness Valerie Amos, who is due to become the first black head of an Oxford college later this year, countered arguments that the statue’s presence is needed “to have a conversation about history.”
She told BBC Breakfast today: “We shouldn't airbrush history but I don't think you need a statue of Cecil Rhodes to help you to have a conversation about that history. I would take it down.
Still the only black man to win the US Open tennis title, a statue of the legendary champion, Arthur Ashe, is now the only one remaining on Monument Avenue in his Richmond, Virginia hometown, where confederate leaders of the Civil War were also once displayed, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
BOB NEWLAND relishes a fascinating read as well as an invaluable piece of local research



