Recognizing the 95th Anniversary of Women's Equality Day

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in recognition of the 95th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, granting voting rights for women. I ask my colleagues to join me in marking August 26, known as Women's Equality Day, a significant landmark in American history as we acknowledge, honor, and celebrate the vast and vital contributions that women have made to our country.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and other dedicated supporters for women's equality convened the First Women's Rights Convention on July 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY. They advocated for the right to own property, protection from domestic violence, and other social reforms that promoted equality, including voting, and never wavered in that pursuit. Stanton wrote a Declaration of Sentiments that called for ``all men and women'' to be recognized as created equal under the law, thus beginning the 72-year struggle for suffrage that ended in 1920.

Mr. President, 2015 is the bicentennial year for Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was born November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, NY. Celebrations of her extraordinary life are taking place throughout the year. Stanton met Susan B. Anthony in 1851, and they began a 50-year partnership advocating for suffrage and women's equality; however, both women did not live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment. As the mother of seven children, Mrs. Stanton can be proud of the legacy she left to her descendants, one of whom is today spearheading a committee tasked with placing a new statue of these two amazing leaders in New York. They gave a voice to millions of women and changed history forever following Anthony's vow that ``failure is impossible.''

A unique crossroad of history resides at 77th and Central Park West in New York City with statues of two U.S. Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt astride a horse outside the American Museum of Natural History and Abraham Lincoln who stands on the steps of the New-York Historical Society. Near Lincoln is a statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass symbolically carrying books at a building that safeguards history. I am pleased to announce that permission was granted in May 2015 for a suffragist statue to be installed at the West 77th Street entrance to Central Park. It will be the very first statue of a woman in this park's 160-year history.

New York City park commissioner Mitchell J. Silver awarded this site for a statue of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, pioneering leaders of the women's suffrage movement. Included in the sculpture design are the names of many remarkable women instrumental in the fight toward winning the vote. Its installation in September 2017 will coincide with New York State's centennial of women's voting rights. The New-York Historical Society announced that in the transformation of its fourth floor there would be a new Center for the Study of Women's History that will present special exhibitions, as well as public and scholarly programs.

Over 50 million visitors each year are welcomed to New York City, with over half reporting they spend time in Central Park. Placing the Stanton and Anthony statue at this highly visible locale that resonates social justice will undoubtedly draw local residents and visitors of all nations to history lessons that include the story of the equal rights and suffrage movements in America.

I ask that we give tribute on August 26, 2015, the 95th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, to the early suffragists who were steadfast in their pursuit of equality for all citizens, which is a sacred trust that we must continue to support today.

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