A group of black pastors and conservative leaders held a small rally outside the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery on Thursday, demanding the removal of the bust of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger,
The Daily Signal reported.
"The woman was a racist. She was a genocidal figure in America and in human history," said Bishop E.W. Jackson, president of STAND. "And to honor her is to be complicit in her evil and her racism. That's right. If you are honoring Margaret Sanger, you are joining together with her in her racist ideology."
Sanger was a eugenics advocate, and critics point to her writings indicating that blacks, among others, were inferior and should be forcibly sterilized.
Sanger's bust appears in the museum's "Struggle for Justice" exhibit with Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Jackson called it an "outrage" that she should be placed alongside the two African-American civil rights leaders.
"If Margaret Sanger had her way, MLK and Rosa Parks never would have been born," Jackson said.
Jackson said he has collected 14,000 signatures demanding Sanger's removal.
Currently, African-Americans represent 13 percent of the population, but almost three times that amount (37 percent) of women who have abortions are black, Jackson said.
"Margaret Sanger would truly be satisfied," he told the group.
A spokesperson for the gallery admitted the "sometimes deplorable beliefs" of Sanger, Fox News Channel reported, but added that the director "respectfully declines" to remove the bust because Sanger is being honored for her contributions to women's healthcare.
The spokesperson said the gallery features several people who have "less than admirable characteristics," The Daily Signal reported.