A 13-ton marble statue of suffragists Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony has greeted individuals who have visited the Capitol Rotunda for the past month. The monument, formerly located in the crypt of the building, was formally rededicated on June 26. The National Woman’s Party presented the statue to Congress in 1921, and it was moved from the Rotunda to the basement of the building one day after its dedication. Women’s groups fought for three decades to get the tribute moved back to its more prominent position raising the $75,000 necessary to move the statue to the Rotunda where it is the only statue depicting a woman. However, a congressional committee is still searching for another location to serve as the statue’s permanent address.
Karen Staser, who helped lead a campaign to move the statue to the Rotunda, is urging Congress to keep it there. Her organization has formed a task force whose goal it to erect a monument for Sojourner Truth, a former slave and suffragette. According to Staser, “Because of what these women began, I and other women vote, attend college, own property and can even run for Congress.”
