#Monument of women’s rights pioneers coming to Central Park this summer

The statue honors Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

A new monument showcasing Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton is set to be unveiled in Central Park Aug. 26.

All while activists clamor to tear down New York City statues of Teddy Roosevelt and Christopher Columbus.

The Aug. 26 date coincides with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The 14-foot-high bronze and granite composite piece will be the first among Central Park’s 23 other statues to honor a woman.

The work, now being made at a foundry in Orange County NY, is “quite a monumental achievement,” said activist model Natalie White, who in 2016 led a 250-mile march from New York City to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness for the Equal Rights Amendment.

The $1.5 million cost was raised by the non-profit Monumental Women’s Statue Fund, a volunteer group of women’s rights advocates, historians and community leaders, and designed by sculptor Meredith Bergmann, who also did the Boston’s Women’s Memorial and the September 11th Memorial at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

“We need statues of real women in Central Park,” Bergmann wrote in an online post.

“We need to be true to our new understanding of the historical record which does not shrink from calling out injustice and oppression, or minimize the contributions of people of color or the harms done to people of color.”

The installation comes amid controversy as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio back the Museum of Natural History’s decision to remove the Roosevelt statue from its Upper West Side entrance amid backlash following protests over the death of George Floyd.

The museum was granted permission by the city to remove the bronze sculpture of Roosevelt on Sunday.