And only because I found this irritating...

 The charter school application opens with this: 

So, a couple of things:

I think it's great we have a statute of Major Taylor downtown. I know it is crucial that kids see themselves depicted in heroic and marvelous ways through images of history and fiction and all we bring to them.

I know well that we have enormous amounts of ground to make up in who we depict as worthy of representation in public art, as well as much else.

But this, to me, is a frank demonstration of this application not being from Worcester.

You see, Worcester isn't a city of statutes; by the public art records, we have 21 statutes in Worcester.

Of those, eleven depict a human being, and of those eight depict a historic person* (and that's counting Isaiah up at Holy Cross!). The only one of those that's a woman, incidentally, is Abby Kelley Foster, and that one isn't built yet.

What we do have is growing amounts of public art that do depict Worcester, its people, including its children, in all of its variety, most notably in murals across the city. 

Major Taylor is not the only such depiction in public art of an African-American in the city. Far from it.

And if you knew our city, you'd know that.

_____

*one of them, of course, is Christopher Columbus
Full rundown on the application over here