Norton Special D.C. Event to Welcome Douglass Statue to Capitol, Following Wednesday's Congressional Unveiling Ceremony

WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that Norton will host a special event for District of Columbia residents and officials to welcome D.C.'s Frederick Douglass statue to the United States Capitol. The official unveiling ceremony this Wednesday is an invitation-only event sponsored by House and Senate leadership, with limited capacity, but Norton is planning a counterpart to the sendoff she held for the Douglass statue last February at One Judiciary Square in the Capitol after the unveiling that will be open to all D.C. residents. The date and time of the event are still being negotiated with Capitol officials, but Norton is trying to arrange an early date and a time most convenient for residents. Norton's event in the Capitol will focus on Douglass's dedication to the District, his hometown, and the District's local efforts that permitted residents to select the D.C. statue and to produce it years in advance while Norton fought to get a bill to permit a D.C. statue in the Capitol through the House and Senate.

"Determined to take their rightful place in the Capitol, District residents selected and the D.C. government commissioned the Douglass statue nearly seven years ago," said Norton. "Like every unveiling of a state statue, the ceremony on Wednesday is much appreciated because it is emblematic of our national citizenship and places D.C. in its rightful place, among the states. However, Frederick Douglass also deserves to be remembered for the part of his life, which is too little known, as an active D.C. resident deeply rooted in our city's daily life and particularly its aspirations for an independent local government and for congressional voting rights. With the Douglass statue, the District of Columbia goes into the Capitol alongside the 50 states, signifying our insistence, following his example, on the equal treatment with the states that we seek."

The upcoming special D.C. event is planned as the Capitol counterpart of February's sendoff from One Judiciary Square, where the statue has been on display, to the Capitol. At the sendoff event, Steven Weitzman, who created the statue, offered a rare glimpse of how a major work is created, and John Muller, the author of the book Frederick Douglass in Washington: The Lion of Anacostia, spoke about Douglass's little known but deep commitment to the rights of D.C. citizens. Mayor Vincent Gray, Council Chair Phil Mendelson, and Council Member Jack Evans, who proposed funds for the statue, also helped celebrate the enactment of Norton's bill to place the first-ever D.C. statue in the Capitol.

Douglass, whose statue will be only the fourth statue or bust in the Capitol that honors an African American, was known as an abolitionist and an international human rights champion, but he also served in D.C. posts and was a militant fighter for equal citizenship for D.C. residents.

Published: June 17, 2013