Norton, Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, Bowser, Mendelson to Unveil D.C.'s Second Statue in the Capitol on Monday

Statement

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that the District of Columbia will score a historic victory for equality with the states on Monday, February 28, when D.C.'s second statue in the U.S. Capitol will be unveiled at a ceremony hosted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Norton, Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson will speak at the unveiling, which will begin at 10 a.m.

D.C. will join each of the 50 states in having two statues in the Capitol. The statue is of Pierre L'Enfant, which D.C. commissioned more than a decade ago with the hope that it would one day be displayed in the Capitol. Due to the pandemic, the event will not be open to the public, but it will be live streamed on Speaker Pelosi's Facebook page.

"We have made historic progress on D.C. statehood this Congress, and the unveiling of D.C.'s second statue in the Capitol will be the latest recognition by the House that D.C. deserves statehood," Norton said. "I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi and Committee on House Administration Chair Zoe Lofgren for accepting D.C.'s gift of the L'Enfant statue and for their support of D.C. statehood and full D.C. equality. I am especially pleased that the statue will be unveiled on February 28, which will serve to inform the American public that D.C. residents were first denied congressional voting representation and self-government when the Organic Act was enacted on February 27, 1801."

Under federal law, each state is entitled to two statues in the Capitol. D.C. already has the distinction of being the only jurisdiction not yet a state to have a statue in the Capitol. In 2013, Norton got D.C.'s statue of Frederick Douglass moved to the Capitol. It is on display in Emancipation Hall.

In 2020, the House passed Norton's D.C. statehood bill, which was the first time either chamber had passed the D.C. statehood bill. Last year, the House passed the bill again, and the Senate held its second-ever hearing on the bill. The bill has a record 45 Senate cosponsors.

Norton looks forward to taking D.C. residents to view the two D.C. statues when the Capitol reopens to visitors.

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