Central Park Will Feature First Statue of Women — Including Sojourner Truth — in 2020
It took more than 150 years, but come 2020, New York City’s Central Park will erect its first statue honoring women.
The city’s Public Design Commission approved a long-gestating statue of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth on Monday, adding them to a lineup that already includes 23 different statues of men.
The statue, designed by Meredith Bergmann, is bronze and sits atop a granite pedestal with inscriptions honoring the trio as women’s rights pioneers.
The women — all major figures in the fight for women’s suffrage — are gathered together around a table, with Truth speaking, Anthony organizing, and Stanton writing, Bergmann explained in a statement.
It will be dedicated in August on the park’s Mall, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of American women winning the right to vote.
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“My hope is that all people, but especially young people, will be inspired by this image of women of different races, different religious backgrounds and different economic status working together to change the world,” Bergmann said after the vote, according to the Associated Press.
Central Park currently has nearly two dozen statues of men scattered throughout its greenery, including Christopher Columbus, Alexander Hamilton and Hans Christian Andersen. The only women featured, however, are fictional characters, like Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose and Juliet of Romeo and Juliet.
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The addition of Truth, an escaped slave and abolitionist, was added only after the statue design faced criticism for excluding African American suffragists, the AP reported.
The nonprofit Monumental Women has been helping raise the $1.5 million needed to create and maintain the statue, according to its website.
“This statue conveys the power of women working together to bring about revolutionary change in our society,” Monumental Women president Pam Elam told the AP.
