Banksy Designs And Sells T-Shirts To Fund People Accused Of Toppling Slave Trader Statue
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Banksy has designed a T-shirt to sell to raise funds for Black Lives Matter protesters accused of toppling a slave trader statue in Bristol.
On June 7 last year, a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston was thrown into Bristol harbour during protests against racial inequality and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21, are due to face trial at Bristol Crown Court on Monday, December 13, charged with criminal damage.
The notorious street artist has designed a grey T-shirt with the word ‘Bristol’ and a sketch of the bare plinth in St Augustine’s Parade which once hosted Colston’s statue.
Banksy shared his design to Instagram, writing, ‘Next week the four people charged with pulling down Colston’s statue in Bristol are going on trial. I’ve made some souvenir shirts to mark the occasion. Available today December 11 from various outlets in the city (all proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint).’
Limited stock is available to purchase at Frontline Video in St Paul’s, Hakuna Matata on Stapleton Road in Easton, That Thing on Stokes Croft, Friendly Records in Bedminster and Rough Trade Records, with the T-shirt costing £25 and restricted to one per customer.
Colston, born in 1636, served as a Conservative MP for Bristol following his tenure as deputy governor of the Royal African Company. He is believed to have trafficked 84,000 African men, women and children in his time, with an estimated 19,000 dying on their journey to the Caribbean and America. His statue has since been recovered and put on display in another location.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to ‘intending to destroy or damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be destroyed or damaged’, as per Sky News.
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