On the recordMarch 27, 2023
I thank the distinguished gentleman for his leadership on a very important topic this evening that brings us all together. I thank Congresswoman Cori Bush for the vibrancy, along with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, in the organizing of the ERA Caucus. It is important that we work together to ensure that the equal rights amendment becomes law. I am reminded of my entering Congress. I don't know if anyone would realize that there was a statue for suffragette women, women in the early 1900s who were seeking the women's right to vote. Even earlier than that, Sojourner Truth, who we galvanized around, with the National Congress for Black Women, to provide an opportunity for Sojourner Truth to even have a statue here as an early suffragette and abolitionist. When I came, the statue honoring women, who fought for women's rights and the right to vote, was in the basement. It was women, Members of the House and the Senate, who had to organize and fight to lift that very awesome sculpture out of the basement, covered by dust, to be able to be put in the rotunda. We still have work undone, because it was a half-finished sculpture. African-American women argued that they did not have Sojourner Truth in that statue, who was an abolitionist and leader on women's rights.…
