Norton, Gray, Mendelson Will Lead Residents Monday in a Black History Month Celebration of Norton Law Placing the First D.C. Statue in the U.S. Capitol

Washington, DC—The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that Norton will host a Black History Month event for D.C. residents celebrating the upcoming move of the District of Columbia's Frederick Douglass statue to the U.S. Capitol, following the enactment of her bill to place the first-ever D.C. statue there, on Monday, February 4, 2013, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the lobby of One Judiciary Square (441 4th Street NW),where the statue is displayed. The speakers are D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray; D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson; Steven Weitzman, who created the statue; John Muller, the author of the book Frederick Douglass in Washington, DC: The Lion of Anacostia; and Nelson Rimensnyder, a D.C. congressional historian.

Last year, after Norton's decade-long fight, President Obama signed into law her bill authorizing the placement of the first-ever D.C. statue, Frederick Douglass, in the U.S. Capitol. While the Joint Committee on the Library has until September 2014 to complete the move of the statue, Norton has asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to dedicate the statue in the Capitol this February in celebration of Black History Month.

"The placement of the District's Douglass statue in the U.S. Capitol along with the statues from the 50 states not only acknowledges the citizenship of the taxpaying Americans who reside in the District," Norton said, "it also helps to broaden the American story told in the Capitol, where only two busts or statues depict African Americans. Douglass was not only a seminal international human rights champion, he was a great fighter for equal citizenship for D.C. residents in particular." Douglass, whose home in Southeast Washington is a National Historic Site, was a longtime D.C. resident, and served as Recorder of Deeds and U.S. Marshal here.

Norton said that she is grateful to the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which, through a public process, selected Frederick Douglass and Pierre L'Enfant as the two residents whose statues should represent the District in the Capitol, and commissioned the statues. Both statues currently sit in the lobby of One Judiciary Square. Republicans in Congress balked at Norton's bill giving D.C., like every state, two statues, because, according to the Republican members of the House Administration Committee, it was "a political pawn in the game to grant the District of Columbia de facto statehood." Nevertheless, last Congress, with the help of Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) and then-Representative Daniel Lungren (R-CA), Norton was able to get her bill authorizing the placement of the Douglass statue in the Capitol enacted.

Published: January 31, 2013