It’s a surprise it took so much huffing and puffing, but since DC is not a state the
city’s unequal status made it difficult to do something so simple: allow a statue
of abolitionist Frederick Douglass in the Capitol. But this week President
Barack Obama signed a law that makes it possible for the bronze statue to be placed in the Emancipation
Hall of the US Capitol Visitor Center.
The way it works in the Capitol is that each state is permitted to have two statues
in the Capitol. Most of them are in Statuary Hall. Others are in the rotunda, and
others still line a number of hallways—literally the halls of Congress. But since
DC is denied statehood, it’s also denied any statues.
Who’s the hero in this? A combination of lawmakers, but principally DC’s House delegate,
Eleanor Holmes Norton, with the help of Representative
Dan Lungren of California and Senator
Charles E. Schumer of New York. Norton has been after this prize for years. She would also like the
courtesy to extend to the man who designed the city’s original plan, Pierre L’Enfant.
The Douglass statue, at least, was approved by Congress last week, and Obama signed
the measure Thursday.
There are many reasons the District’s motto is Taxation Without Representation. This
was one of them.