ECS and SBA Statue Fund Fact Sheet by Pam Elam
We request your support to create a statue in NYC Central Park honoring Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and all those who fought for Woman Suffrage. There are no statues honoring real women in Central Park. There are statues of Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose, and Juliet (with Romeo), but no tributes to the real women who made this City,
State, and Nation great. There are numerous representations of the female form (like angels, nymphs and allegorical figures), but statues celebrating the vast and varied contributions of real women are nowhere to be found. A Letter of Intent, as required by NYC Parks Department guidelines on donating works of art, was sent to the Mayor and Parks Department Commissioner over eight months ago by the ECS-SBA Statue Fund. We have received no direct response from the Mayor's office despite repeated attempts to follow-up. Our first meeting with representatives from the Parks Department and the Central Park Conservancy occurred on September 19th. Important historical milestones regarding Stanton, Anthony, and Woman Suffrage will be celebrated in the near future such as the 200th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 2015; the New York State Woman Suffrage Centennial in 2017; the National Woman Suffrage Centennial in 2020; and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Susan B. By creating this statue honoring Stanton, Anthony and women who fought for the vote, New York City could be in the center of the nationwide Woman Suffrage celebration. With this statue, we will be bringing a bit of Women's History to the 40 million people who visit Central Park each year, as well as to all New York City residents. Let us rectify an injustice to women that has lasted in this City for over 150 years. Let's make Central Park a discrimination-free zone. PARTIAL LIST OF ENDORSERS
The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund Inc. is pleased to represent a list of distinguished endorsers, some of whom include: Ruth J. Abram, Founder of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; Jane Alexander, Former Director of the National Endowment for the Arts; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; Lewis Cullman, Philanthropist; Professor of History Ellen Carol DuBois; Agnes Gund, President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art; Judy Hart, Superintendent (retired) of the National Women's Rights Historical Park in Seneca Falls; Deborah L. Hughes, President and CEO of the Susan B. Anthony House and Museum in Rochester; Helen LaKelly Hunt, Philanthropist; Diane Keaton, Performing Artist; Lilly Ledbetter, inspiration for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; New York City Council Member Mark Levine, Chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreation; U. S. Representative Carolyn Maloney; Edith Mayo, Curator Emerita for the Political History Division of the Smithsonian Institution; Ana L. Oliveira, Foundation CEO; Robert M. Pennoyer, Attorney; Roberta Schneiderman, Philanthropist; U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter; Gloria Steinem, Women's Rights Activist and Author; Carmen Delgado Votaw, National Board Member of the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women; NYS Assembly Member Deborah Glick; and all of the members of The Women's Caucus of the New York City Council: Councilwomen Melissa Mark-Viverito (Council Speaker), Elizabeth Crowley (Women's Caucus Co-Chair), Darlene Mealy (Women's Caucus Co-Chair), Rosie Mendez, Vanessa Gibson, Karen Koslowitz, Margaret Chin, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Laurie Cumbo, Helen Rosenthal, Annabel Palma, Inez Barron, Inez E. Dickens, Julissa Ferreras, and Deborah Rose. Our list of endorsers is in formation. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The fact that no real women are honored by statues in the Nation’s most famous and most important park is not simply an oversight. There is no need here to document the prejudice that, over the centuries, has limited women's dreams, opportunities, and possibilities. That prejudice is all too obvious and has lasted all too long. Similarly, it is obvious that men have had, over time, an almost total monopoly over positions of power in the City's decision-making process. That monopoly is only now beginning to be broken. Through the years, these decision-making males clearly sought to honor themselves and each other in statues and other tributes. Neither is there a need to prove the invaluable role women have played in history. Surely in 2014, most people have access to the fuller and fairer historical record that historians like Dr. Gerda Lerner, and others, have worked so hard to complete. Therefore, it is clear that a more expansive view of “history” and of those who made it is needed. The only thing that remains for us to do, as women and men committed to equality and justice, is to correct this egregious situation by honoring some of history's courageous women. Many women deserve to be honored by statues and monuments in Central Park, but our present proposal focuses only upon the creation of one statue including two women whose valiant work helped change the world's very definition of “democracy”: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Stanton was largely responsible for organizing the nation's First Woman's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. That meeting represented the beginning of a national, later international, movement for women's rights led by Stanton, Anthony, and others, that continues to the present around the world. Stanton and Anthony met in 1851 at an anti-slavery meeting and forged a partnership that lasted for over fifty years. Both had New York City and State roots. Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York and moved to New York City in 1862. She died in 1902 in her West 94th Street apartment just blocks from Central Park and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. Anthony, whose earlier residence was in Rochester, also lived in New York City for parts of her life. Anthony and Stanton published their newspaper, The Revolution, here in 1868 and founded the National Woman Suffrage Association here in 1869. They organized countless conventions, rallies, marches, and meetings here. By honoring Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, New York City will also be honoring the biggest nonviolent revolution in the history of this nation -- the battle for woman suffrage. And to complete this Woman Suffrage statue, we propose that an Honor Roll, listing the names and portraits of other women, whose work was crucial to the success of woman suffrage, be inscribed around its base. These extraordinary women include: Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Mary Church Terrell, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Alva Belmont, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and Alice Stone Blackwell. Finally, we wish to add to that Honor Roll a blank space representing the many unnamed others who devoted their lives to obtaining the vote for women. In this way, the new statue will serve as a monument to freedom and democracy as well as a tribute to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. CONCLUSION
It is impossible to fully express the importance of creating this statue. It is also impossible to overestimate the impact it will have on women and girls. It is long past time for New York City to focus on and foster respect for women's achievements as well as to provide young women with important role models throughout its public spaces. As Setha Low, Dana Taplin, and Suzanne Scheid stated in Rethinking Urban Parks -- Public Space and Cultural Diversity: “People need to feel that a public park is for them.” Hopefully, the statue and the educational campaign around it will have an impact on all New Yorkers regardless of gender. In addition, the creation of this statue will focus the nation's attention on the importance of celebrating the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution. In this statue campaign, New York City and State will, again, be leading the way toward equality and challenging this nation to complete the unfinished journey for justice of these Woman Suffrage pioneers. As Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar wrote in The Park and The People - A History of Central Park: “But if history teaches us anything it is the contingency of particular historical moments, the possibility that change can come from new and unexpected directions." We must not let this “particular historical moment” pass us by. New York City has the unique opportunity to make a long-overdue change in the way it recognizes the contributions of women. The creation of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony statue will be a step in the right direction as this City demonstrates that its public spaces reflect the reality of history. By adding statues of real women in Central Park, the City will make a lasting statement to all future visitors and to all New Yorkers, a message written in stone or shaped in bronze, that equality applies to everyone.
