WASHINGTON (AP) — The 19th-century orator and writer Frederick Douglass will once again stand tall in the U.S. Capitol.
A 7-foot bronze likeness of Douglass is being unveiled Wednesday in a ceremony led by House Speaker John Boehner.
The statue joins sculpted tributes to fellow black Americans Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth on permanent display in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall.
Douglass was born a slave in 1818 in Talbot County, Md. He advised President Abraham Lincoln and was a voice for women’s rights as well as those of black Americans.
Boehner is calling the statue “a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Americans and voices for freedom who ever lived.”
The statue by Maryland artist Steve Weitzman portrays Douglass in his 50s.
