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Whereas Sojourner Truth was one of the 4 major pioneers
and symbols of the first women’s movement arising in
1848;
Whereas Sojourner Truth was acknowledged as a sister in
the fight for women’s rights by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage in their
History of Woman Suffrage first published in 1881;
Whereas Sojourner Truth is acclaimed as the foremost leader
in the first women’s rights movement who worked tire-
lessly for the laboring, working class, black and immi-
grant women who suffered in the workplace as well as
from their political disenfranchisement;
Whereas Sojourner Truth was an impoverished former slave
who supported herself by working as a domestic, whose
back bore the scars from a savage whipping she received
as a child slave, and whose children remained legally and
physically separated from her in slavery after her own
emancipation, yet she rose above this suffering to become
a renowned national leader in the fight against slavery
and for human rights, and to provide an inspirational
role model for children;
Whereas the effort to raise the Portrait Monument described
in House Concurrent Resolution 216, One Hundred
Fourth Congress, originated in the effort to recreate and
honor on August 19, 1995, a specific historical event, the
75th anniversary of the ratification of the nineteenth
amendment granting women’s suffrage;
Whereas the purpose of placing a statue honoring leaders of
the women’s movement in place of prominence and es-
teem is to commemorate for our children and for future
generations to come the contributions of all women who
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worked for equality for women and to serve as a re-
minder to all Americans of how our right to vote
undergrids true equality for all;
Whereas the Portrait Monument as a celebration of the first
women’s movement is historically inaccurate in its exclu-
sion of Sojourner Truth’s pioneering efforts and con-
tributions to the pursuit of equal rights in the first wom-
en’s movement and in the participation of women of color
to the suffrage movement; and
Whereas the Portrait Monument contains an unfinished por-
tion whose significance and meaning has been disputed
by some historians and art curators: Now, therefore be
it,
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring),
SECTION 1. POSTPONING RELOCATION OF PORTRAIT
MONUMENT TO ROTUNDA OF THE CAPITOL.
Effective as of the date on which this concurrent res-
olution is agreed to, sections 1 and 2 of House Concurrent
Resolution 216, One Hundred Fourth Congress, shall have
no force or effect.
SEC. 2. FUNCTIONS AND MEMBERSHIP OF COMMISSION RE-
SPONSIBLE 
FOR 
SELECTING 
PERMANENT
SITE FOR PORTRAIT MONUMENT.
Section 3 of House Concurrent Resolution 216, One
Hundred Fourth Congress, shall remain in effect after
this concurrent resolution is agreed to, except that—
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(1) the membership of the Commission de-
scribed in such section shall be expanded to include
4 additional private citizens with knowledge of the
woman’s suffrage movement or the history and role
of women in the arts, of whom one shall be selected
by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one
shall be selected by the Minority Leader of the
House of Representatives, one shall be selected by
the Majority Leader of the Senate, and one shall be
selected by the Minority Leader of the Senate; and
(2) the Commission described in such section
shall complete the functions described in paragraphs
(1) through (4) of such section not later than one
year after the date on which this concurrent resolu-
tion is agreed to.
SEC. 3. RECOGNITION OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE STATUE
CAMPAIGN AND THE SOJOURNER TRUTH
STATUE CRUSADE.
The Woman Suffrage Statue Campaign and all those
individuals and groups who supported its work are hereby
recognized and congratulated for their educational efforts
to acknowledge the contributions of Lucretia Mott, Eliza-
beth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony to women’s
suffrage and the 75th anniversary of the ratification of
the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution, and the
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Sojourner Truth Statue Crusade and all those individuals
and groups who supported its work are hereby recognized
and congratulated for their educational efforts to acknowl-
edge the contributions of Sojourner Truth as well as
Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. An-
thony to the abolitionist and women’s movements.
Æ