Maryland Legislative Agenda for Women (MLAW)

Last Saturday, November 20, representatives from both EVE and Maryland NOW attended a Maryland Legislative Agenda for Women (MLAW) conference in Rockville, Maryland. MLAW is a statewide coalition of women’s groups and individuals which advocates for pro-woman legislation in the General Assembly.

The conference was attended by a variety of groups including the Maryland Commission for Women, The Anne Arundel County Commission for Women, the ACLU of Maryland, the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and the Polaris Project. Numerous state legislators were also in attendance, including Delegate Sue Kullen, Outgoing Chair of the Women’s Caucus; Senator Delores Goodwin Kelly; Delegate Kathleen Dumais; Senator Jennie Forehand; Senator Jamie Raskin; Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez; Delegate Sue Hecht; and Senator Joanne Claybon Benson.

Linda Mahoney, the President of Maryland NOW, and I were there to make the case for the Harriet Tubman statue project. We handed out fliers describing the project, gave a presentation in front of the full body, and answered questions from the audience. The audience was quick to understand the problem (only nine women in National Statuary Hall) and the psychological implications for women and girls. Everyone I spoke to was enthusiastic about helping with the project.

We were asked numerous questions by the audience and in individual conversations. Here are some of the questions and our answers:

• Which statue (John Hanson or Charles Carroll) are you going to ask to have removed from Statuary Hall?
  We are going to leave that decision up to the Maryland Legislature.
• Do you have a sponsor for the bill?
  Not yet, but we have contacted the delegates from Dorchester County, where Harriet Tubman was born.
• Do you have a resolution written?
  Yes, we have a draft of a resolution written.
• How much will the statue cost?
  The statue will cost approximately two-hundred fifty thousand dollars.

EVE officially launches Harriet Tubman project

We have lift-off! Our press release was issued yesterday: EVE teams up with Maryland NOW to put Harriet Tubman in National Statuary Hall.

Quoting from the release:

Maryland has a chance to become the first state to honor an African-American in National Statuary Hall.

There are 100 statues in the U.S. Capitol Building’s Statuary Hall, representing great Americans from all 50 states. Only 9 of the statues are of women. None are of African-Americans.

Equal Visibility Everywhere (EVE), an organization dedicated to highlighting women’s history and achievements, announced today that it is teaming up with the Maryland chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) to put a statue of Harriet Tubman in Statuary Hall. Tubman, a Maryland-born slave who became a renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, would be the first African-American in Statuary Hall and only the tenth woman. …continue reading

Newsflash: Harriet Tubman in Statuary Hall Campaign

Published on May 12, 2010 in Ms. Magazine:

Equal Visibility Everywhere (EVE) and Maryland’s NOW launched a campaign today to get a Harriet Tubman statue in the National Statuary Hall, where she would be the first African American and first enslaved person to be so honored. Tubman, a Maryland-born abolitionist and suffragist known for conducting the Underground Railroad to rescue slaves from servitude, would only be the 10th woman in the hall among 100 statues.
…

“What a lot of [Statuary Hall] visitors probably don’t realize is that the Capitol was built partly with slave labor,” says Suzanne Scoggins, communications director for EVE. “The huge marble columns in Statuary Hall were quarried, cut, and polished by slaves.”

Read the full article at Ms. Magazine.

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