Atlanta has many examples of women who changed the city, country, or even the world. But you’d be hard-pressed to find statues paying them their honor.
Driving the news: Data from Monument Lab finding a woefully low number of statues honoring women across the country, plus the recent unveiling of Xernona Clayton’s statue last week, got us thinking about how the city and state pays tribute to notable Georgia women.
Why it matters: Clayton’s statue — the first of a Black woman in a downtown business district in the country, per a project official — represents a small, yet important step in getting more women enshrined the same way men and their personas have been cemented for decades.
What they’re saying: “They’re all white women,” Amy Durrell, a historian with History Afoot Atlanta, tells Axios of the statues of women around Atlanta today. “They’re all elite and they’re all women who are being celebrated for their roles as wives and mothers.”
- Statues of women that were erected earlier in Atlanta’s history include that of Elizabeth Brown, the wife of former Gov. Joseph E. Brown, and Asa Candler’s mother, Martha.
- While the statue of former City Council member Barbara Asher at Marietta and Broad streets shows her appearing confident, its inscription still stresses her role as a wife and mother, Durrell told the AJC.
Worth noting: An art installation unveiled in 2021 included life-sized Bronze sculptures of Dorothy Bolden, a domestic workers labor organizer, and civil rights activist Rita Samuels.
State of play: Keith Strigaro, director of communications for the Georgia Historical Society, told Axios the organization has seen an increase in the number of applications for historical markers about women in the last several years.
Zoom out: According to Monument Lab, across the country, there are 22 sculptures of mermaids, while only 21 honor abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Axios‘ Chelsea Brasted writes. Of the top 50 historical figures represented in Monument Lab data, only…
Read the full article here
