Truth, Susan B. & Cady in stone
Cent. Pk. women’s statue is a go
A city panel narrowly approved the first Central Park monument dedicated to women, despite criticism that two of the statue’s subjects wouldn’t necessarily have seen eye to eye with the third.
Six of nine members of the Public Design Commission green-lit the bronze and granite statue of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth on Monday. Six affirmative votes are required for approval of public artwork.
“As we all know the park has statues of Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose, Juliet with Romeo, lots of angels and nymphs but no real women until now,” said Pam Elam, head of the nonprofit Monumental Women that started fundraising for the tribute six years ago.
The panel’s other three members abstained.
The trio — Brooklyn painter Hank Willis Thomas, Queens artist Mary A. Valverde and architect Laurie Hawkinson — did not return messages seeking comment.
At a September meeting, Thomas suggested building monuments to suffragettes to replace two of the existing 23 male statutes in the park, including Christopher Columbus and Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Critics nixed the original design that included just Anthony and Stanton, claiming the exclusion of African-American pioneers such as Truth “whitewashed” history.
Proponents reworked the proposal to include Truth, an abolitionist and women’s rights icon.
That generated complaints that it inappropriately linked Truth to Anthony and Stanton, who belittled African Americans and made them stand in the back at rallies.
The end result is the proposed 14-foot-tall monument, which shows the three women seated around a table while hinting at the tensions between them.
Truth’s hand is raised off the table to indicate disagreement, said preservation activist Todd Fine.
The $1.5 million statue will be installed on Central Park’s Literary Walk, near 70th Street. It will be funded largely from private contributions including Girl Scout cookie sales. The city will kick in $135,000.
It’s set to be unveiled in August 2020 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.