Bill > A4503

Introduced Session

The purpose of this bill is to request that the New Jersey statues of Richard Stockton and Philip Kearny in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol be replaced with statues of Harriet Tubman and Alice Paul. Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist, Civil War scout, emancipator, and suffragist. Tubman was born into slavery, and after risking her life to escape to the north, she embarked on numerous missions to liberate dozens of other enslaved people. Tubman was instrumental during the Civil War as a scout and spy and was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the war. Tubman's legacy has extended throughout the United States, including the Harriet Tubman Museum of Cape May, which is set to open this year. Alice Paul was a women's rights activist, suffragist, and principal leader of the early 1900's campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. She was born on January 11, 1885, in Moorestown, New Jersey. Alice Paul was instrumental in the passage and ratification in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying any citizen the right to vote on the basis of sex. The bill enables the State, following the procedure established in federal law, to formally ask the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress to approve the replacement of the statues of Richard Stockton and Philip Kearny the State had provided for display in the National Statuary Hall Collection. If approved by the Joint Committee, the new statues would be of Harriet Tubman and Alice Paul. The bill establishes a temporary, bi-partisan, seven-member committee made up of: (1) four members appointed by the Governor, upon recommendation of the Senate President and the Speaker of the General Assembly; (2) the New Jersey Secretary of State, or a designee thereof; and (3) two members appointed by the Governor. The committee will select a sculptor or sculptors for the statues and determine how to fund its completion and transportation to the United States Capitol.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Carol Murphy (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee (on 08/10/2020)