If you take a drive around Buffalo, you'll find the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus park, a Statue of David and a Tim Horton statue by Canalside. There's a common theme WNY monuments: they're mostly men.
"You shouldn't have to lead charge in a war...to be recognized for your contribution," said Dr. Karen King, Executive Director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women. "We want to change that."
Through a plan called the monument project, the county hopes to add three monuments in 2020 of three women important to WNY history:
- Louise Blanchard Bethune: The first professional woman architect in the United States, known for designing the Lafayette hotel. Bethune advocated for co-education and design excellence in educational design.
- Mary Burnett Talbert: A civil rights leader, anti-lynching activist, suffragist, preservationist and educator. She was an early member of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, which helped organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
- Geraldine “Gawö:sid-tah" Green: A devoted educator, one of the venerable fluent speakers of the Seneca language who shared her knowledge throughout the region, nationally and internationally.
-Info from the Trailblazing Women of WNY
Currently, 2 of the 106 public statues in Buffalo are women, that's 2%. The proposed site for these new monuments is the Central Library in Downtown Buffalo.
Funding for these monuments comes from the county, costing $250,000.
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