Frederick Douglass Statue to Be Unveiled in Capitol on Juneteenth Day

On Wednesday, June 19, a statue of famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) will be unveiled in the United States Capitol Visitor Center at a ceremony.  After escaping slavery, Douglass became a leader of the abolitionist movement and a prolific writer.  District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has been pushing for the statue for years.  All 50 states are represented in the Capitol by a famous person. But not Washington DC.

Douglass will be the fourth African American to be depicted in the U.S. Capitol complex.

The last African American to be unveiled was Rosa Parks (1913-2005).  Her statue [is] in statuary hall.  A statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) stands in the Capitol rotunda and a statue of abolisionist Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was unveiled in the  the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in 2012.

“I welcome the announcement that the District of Columbia’s statue of Frederick Douglass will be unveiled in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center next month. This statue, which will be the third statue or bust of an African American on display in the U.S. Capitol, will represent more than 600,000 District of Columbia residents and serve as tribute to a great Marylander and civil rights leader,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

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