The Oval Office of Biden: Family Photos and Statues of Rights Activists - Walla! news

2021-01-23T19:46:46.308Z

The new president paid tribute to Rosa Parks and Caesar Chavez, removing the image of populist President Andrew Jackson. He hung portraits of presidents who faced major crises and who were sworn rivals. Trump's Diet Coke button was also removed

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The Oval Office of Biden: Family photos and statues of rights activists

The new president paid tribute to Rosa Parks and Caesar Chavez, removing the image of populist President Andrew Jackson.

He hung portraits of presidents who faced major crises and who were sworn rivals.

Trump's Diet Coke button was also removed

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Joe Biden
United States

Reuters

Saturday, 23 January 2021, 19:51

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Each president brings his own design.

Biden in the Oval Office (Photo: Reuters)

US President Joe Biden designed the oval room with sculptures of leaders of civil rights and workers' movements, pictures of past leaders facing major crises and those who disagreed.

In addition, he replaced the military flags displayed during Donald Trump's presidency with a single United States flag and the presidential seal, and a series of family photos.

The Oval Office is the official workplace of the President of the United States, and most of them are redesigned upon taking office, from furniture and carpets, to souvenirs collected by the White House, museums and collectors.

Biden removed the portrait of President Andrew Jackson, whose populist style was sometimes compared to that of Trump.

In the space are now pictures of Abraham Lincoln, who led the country during the Civil War and the end of the slavery period, and Franklin Roosevelt, who was president during the Great Depression.

Pictures of the Biden family in the Oval Office, next to a statue of Cesar Chavez (Photo: Reuters)

The Oval Office is the official workplace of the US President (Photo: Reuters)

Biden, who in his inaugural speech on Wednesday called for unity, placed side by side pictures of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and President Thomas Jefferson, two of the founding fathers of the United States who were known for their deep disagreements.

Among the statues Biden placed in the Oval Office are that of Senator Daniel Webster, who vigorously defended the unity of America in 1830, then said "Freedom and Unity, now and forever, and must not be separated";

Of Rosa Parks, pioneers of the civil rights movement;

Of Cesar Chavez, leader of a labor movement;

And one prepared by a member of the Shirikwa tribe.

Tribal members sued the Trump administration to prevent an exchange of land that would give mining company Rio Tinto land in favor of building a copper mine.

In October, Biden promised the indigenous communities a "chair around the table" in his administration.

He chose Dov Halland, of the Pueblo Lagoon tribe and a congressman from New Mexico, as his interior minister.

Roosevelt (center) alongside portraits of Lincoln and other past presidents (Photo: Reuters)

Statue of the leader of the civic movement Rosa Parks (Photo: Reuters)

Biden also returned to the Oval Office a painting of United States flags on New York's Fifth Avenue - "Avenue in the Rain" - which hung during the tenure of past presidents, but was removed from office under Trump's tenure.

Another thing missing from Biden's desktop is Trump's "Date Cola Button," which was used by the previous president to order his favorite carbonated beverage.