Women's Suffrage National Monument Location Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. 1318, the Women's Suffrage National Monument Location Act, which was received from the House and is at the desk.
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Ms. BALDWIN. I know of no further debate on the bill.
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Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, I rise today to speak to the Women's Suffrage National Monument Location Act to designate the Women's Suffrage National Monument be built on the National Mall.

I was proud to introduce this bill with Senator Blackburn, as she and I represent both the first and the final States to ratify the 19th Amendment and grant women the right to vote across the Nation.

The National Mall honors some of the most important features of our shared American story. Conspicuously absent from this portrayal of our Nation's history, however, is the story of women's suffrage. In fact, the National Mall receives over 24 million visitors annually, and despite there being 40 commemorative works on the National Mall, none of those are dedicated to women. We have introduced this legislation to correct this glaring omission on the National Mall.

Women's suffrage was only made possible through the fight of multiple generations of activists of all backgrounds, who joined together with the steadfast belief that our country must live up to its highest democratic ideals.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, where they declared ``that all men and women are created equal.''

Sojourner Truth gave her famous ``Ain't I a woman'' speech in 1851, where she challenged the women's suffrage movement to include Black women.

Susan B. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for violating the law and daring to cast her vote at the ballot box and went on to help found the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890.

Carrie Chapman Catt, born in Ripon, WI, took up the helm of that organization after Anthony and traveled around the country, organizing for the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Inez Milholland led on horseback more than 8,000 marchers in the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell demanded that the movement include women of color by refusing to march at the back of that very demonstration.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns led acts of peaceful civil disobedience, including ``Silent Sentinels,'' who picketed at the White House continuously from 1917 to 1919.

There are countless other women who fought and continue to fight for true equality for women in this country. Without the story of how women fought to secure our rightful participation in our democracy, our National Mall is incomplete.

This monument is just as much about honoring our past as it is about inspiring our future. Every young girl, every child, and every adult who travels to our Nation's Capital should see themselves reflected there. They should know that they belong in the halls of government, and their stories belong in our Nation's history, and that they belong on the National Mall.

With that, I would yield to the senior Senator from Tennessee, Senator Blackburn.
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