Washington Post
Opinion: This monument has been missing from the Mall far too long
By Marsha Blackburn, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Cynthia Lummis and Katie Britt
In our nation’s capital, there is one place that more than any other showcases our history: the National Mall. For more than 100 years, this two-mile stretch of land flanked by the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House and our national cultural institutions has embodied our country’s ideals and honored our national memory.
But one thing is missing.
Among the 40 monuments, memorials, statues and historic sites on the Mall — including 22 dedicated to individual men, 10 to military history and veterans, three to foreign relations, two to private organizations, one to U.S. postal history, one to the history of the United States’ canals, and another to the history of horses on the Mall — there is not a single one dedicated to American women.
That’s why we are working with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to spearhead an effort to create a memorial honoring American women’s history in the Mall’s monumental core. With the passage of the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act, a monument commemorating women’s long fight for the right to vote will take its rightful place in our nation’s capital.
As the first women to represent our states in the Senate, we know that women’s fight for the vote is the story of a great American movement for change. It is a story — written by women, led by women — about democracy at work and the power and courage of the American spirit.
In November, a unanimous House passed legislation permitting the Women’s Suffrage National Monument to be placed in Constitution Gardens, a 50-acre space dedicated during the nation’s bicentennial celebrations as a living memorial to the founding of the republic. It is only fitting that the monument to honor our foremothers’ role in expanding our democracy through the 19th Amendment be placed there, alongside the memorial that honors our Founding Fathers.
This project has bipartisan and bicameral support in Congress, as well as the support of every living first lady, and is the only monument supported by the National Park Service for inclusion on the Mall. We are one Senate vote away from bringing it to fruition, and we urge our colleagues to seize the day.
As the suffragists would say, failure is impossible.
Marsha Blackburn is a Republican senator from Tennessee, Cindy Hyde-Smith is a Republican senator from Mississippi, Cynthia Lummis is a Republican senator from Wyoming and Katie Boyd Britt is a Republican senator from Alabama.