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The Washington National Cathedral is getting new stained glass windows | It's A DC Thing

The new windows will have a social justice theme, and replace windows that featured confederate generals. Those windows came down in 2017.

WASHINGTON — A big change is coming to the Washington National Cathedral. The church is partnering with artist Kerry James Marshall to create some new stained glass windows.

The older stained glass windows featured two Confederate generals. Those came down in 2017.Plywood currently sits in their place. 

Marshall is a renowned artist known for his work depicting African American culture. He's accepting what he calls a "symbolic artist fee" of $18.65 to work on the windows.

It's part of a $1 million donation for the windows from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

Marshall said the $18.65 is meant represent the year 1865, and the end of the Civil War. 

“This project is not just a job—I don’t need the work—or only a piece of art. It’s kind of a calling, and a real honor to be asked,” Marshall said in a statement. “The themes that the Cathedral committee articulated set a great challenge for me as an artist and as a Black American man. The goal is to make truly meaningful additions to an already rich and magnificent institution, to make the changes they have embraced truly worth the effort.”

The Cathedral has also commissioned Pulitzer-nominated poet Dr. Elizabeth Alexander to pen a poem that will be inscribed in the stone beneath the new windows. One of the former windows, which depicted Gen. Robert E. Lee, has been loaned to the National Museum of African American History and Culture for a year-long exhibit on reconstruction.

Credit: Washington National Cathedral
Poet Dr. Elizabeth Alexander and artist Kerry James Marshall.

“I grew up in Washington D.C., and spent time throughout my childhood in the hallowed Cathedral. I am incredibly honored to be a part of the National Cathedral’s effort to ensure that those who worship within its sanctuary know that it is truly a space for all people, and that the stories relayed through its sacred walls, windows and other iconography represent the truth of our nation,” said Dr. Alexander. “I’m delighted to work in close collaboration with my dear friend of over thirty years Kerry James Marshall on this inspiring project for the Cathedral as we consecrate its sacred space with our artistic work.”

The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean for the National Cathedral, said the old windows told a story that was incomplete.

"They celebrated two generals, but they did nothing to address the reality and painful legacy of America’s original sin of slavery and racism. They represented a false narrative of what America once was and left out the painful truth of our history,” said Rev, Hollerith. “We’re excited to share a new and more complete story, to tell the truth about our past and to lift up who we aspire to be as a nation.”

The Washington National Cathedral hopes the new windows will be finished by 2023.

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