The stone relief at the entrance to Martins Bank Building on Water Street depicts the oppression and slavery of two African children. The relief was created during the rise of British fascism in the late 1920s and early 1930s, therefore not a historical depiction of the slave trade, but rather white supremacist propaganda promoting the oppression of the Black community in 20th Century Britain. The memorialisation of the oppression and slavery of Black people is an act of violence and perpetuates the systems of structural racism in society that this current movement is calling so loudly to dismantle. With one of the oldest Black communities in the UK, Liverpool has an essential duty to rightfully acknowledge their Black history and how the city can amplify, not oppress, the Black voices that have made Liverpool the city it is today. 

A blatant depiction of child slavery should have no place in any city, especially Liverpool which was built on the back of Black individuals. Liverpool needs to further recognise its complicity in the slave trade and address its violent past. We are asking for this relief to be removed out of respect for past and present Black lives in Liverpool.