Former Whipping Post Removed From Waterbury's Green

A controversial display has been removed from Waterbury’s Green.

On Thursday, Mayor Neil O’Leary announced a former whipping post would be taken out.

"We don’t want anybody to feel anxiety or to feel fear. The Green is the center of the city of Waterbury," O’Leary said.

NBC Connecticut has not yet heard back from city staff about what was done with the post and where it might have been taken.

There have been growing calls to do something with it for about a week.

The post had been used for displaying messages.

But then recently its role as a whipping post during Colonial times came to light again after a local librarian published a story online.

"It’s history for not only the African American culture but it’s history of public humiliation, history of our city, we want people to hear about it, to see it, to see it in a more appropriate location," Ginne-Rae Clay, Greater Waterbury NAACP acting president, said.

In the past week, O’Leary said his office received a flood of comments about this post.

Some wanted it destroyed, while others preferred it stayed on the Green with a plaque explaining its significance.

"I had no problem with it. I would have left it there because it’s a piece of history," Tracy George, of Waterbury, said.

After meeting with the NAACP on Thursday, the mayor chose another option and hopes the post ends up at the Mattatuck Museum, which is located at the other end of the Green.

"It is probably better off in a museum to keep people from having such an issue with it," Kathleen Calloway of Waterbury, said.

The mayor calls this a good learning experience for his now diverse city and hopes that education continues with the post in a museum.

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