Norton Announces Historic Victory for D.C. Equality as She Gets Second D.C. Statue in U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that the District of Columbia will score a new, historic breakthrough this year when D.C. will have two statues on display in the U.S. Capitol. Norton thanked Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who announced today that the House will accept a statue of Pierre L'Enfant as a gift from D.C. Several years ago, the District asked residents to select two statues they wanted in the Capitol. The L'Enfant statue, currently located at a D.C. government building (One Judiciary Square), is being accepted today, which is the anniversary of the Organic Act of 1801, under which D.C. residents lost congressional voting rights and local self-government. Norton will invite residents to a ceremony when the L'Enfant statue is unveiled in the Capitol this year. The District had already scored the distinction of being the only jurisdiction not yet a state to have even one statue in the Capitol when Norton got the District's Frederick Douglass statue moved to the Capitol in 2013.

Norton thanked the Speaker for accepting the statue and Committee on House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) for her leadership as Committee chair. In 2002, Norton first introduced legislation to allow the District to display two statues in the Capitol, just as the 50 states do. Under federal law, every state is entitled to display two statues in the Capitol. Even though the District is not yet a state, in 2012, Norton broke with precedent and got a bill signed into law that placed the District's Douglass statue in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol, making the District the only non-state jurisdiction with a statue in the Capitol.

"When the District of Columbia commissioned the Douglass and L'Enfant statues, it was always our intention to bring them to the Capitol as equal with the states," Norton said. "Now, with historic momentum as our D.C. statehood bill is headed to the House floor for passage this year, the L'Enfant statue is a potent symbol that D.C. equality and D.C. statehood are on the way.

"I want to particularly thank Speaker Pelosi for the unprecedented breakthrough that now allows the District to have two statues in the Capitol, even before the District becomes a state. From the Speaker's strong endorsement of D.C. statehood, to her unwavering advocacy for D.C. voting rights and home rule, she is moving the District toward the equality our residents have sought for 219 years."