To the Editor:

Since Mr. Cliff Albright seems concerned about getting his facts straight, I feel someone should point out a few facts to him about the Statue of Liberty.

When reading the articles in The Selma Times-Journal pertaining to the Freedom Party, I was amazed that the newspaper allowed revisionist history as fact.

First, the statue was not created in the mind of a French historian named Bartholdi.

He was not a historian, he was an artist for hire.

The statue was originated in the mind of Edouard Laboulaye.

He was a propagandist and a professor of history who aligned himself closely to the Abolitionist Party, commonly known as the Republican Party.

He was a part of this party in New York and Philadelphia and was also a member of the Anti-Slavery Society of France.

It was he who asked the artist to make a model of a statue for presentation to America.

Several models were made, one being that of an Egyptian peasant girl, but the Goddess of Liberty was decided to be the most representative of the message Mr. Laboulaye wanted to portray to America.

It was not given in recognition of black soldiers who fought and won the Civil War as stated by Mr. Albright.

It was given as a symbol that the United States had abolished slavery, thus there being one broken shackle on one ankle with a broken chain.

Maybe these pieces of fiction told by Mr. Albright won’t matter to many, but I relegate this to a newly-formed Freedom Party that vows to be truthful and factual in order to fight poverty, oppression and discrimination.

Willingness to miseducate the public about facts concerning our Statue of Liberty is not a way to the truth.

Gene Hisel