The Abraham Lincoln Statue, erected in 1879, by Thomas Ball, is viewed in Park Square in Boston, Massachusetts on June 16, 2020. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images) BOSTON (AP) - A statue of Abraham Lincoln with a freed slave appearing to kneel at his feet — optics that drew objections amid a national reckoning with racial injustice — has been removed from its perch in downtown Boston.Workers removed the Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Emancipation Group and the Freedman’s Memorial, early Tuesday from a park just off Boston Common where it had stood since 1879.City officials had agreed in late June to take down the memorial after complaints and a bitter debate over the design.