On the eve Hillary Rodham Clinton’s acceptance speech, I’m thinking about and thanking all the pioneering women I’ve written about over the years. I’m also thinking about landmarks in D.C. that could inspire and sustain HRC. Here two: The Department of Labor Building named for Frances Perkins. first woman in a presidential cabinet, and the memorial to Mary McLeod Bethune, presidential advisor and director of the National Youth Administration of Negro Affairs. The several display inside the building to Perkins include a plaque that reads: This building is dedicated to the memory of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, 1933-1945, whose legacy of social action enhances the lives of all American workers in wartime and peace. In depression and recovery she articulated the hopes and dreams of working people and worked untiringly to make those hopes and dreams a reality through the force of her moral courage, intellect, and will. She brought sweeping changes to our national laws and practices and forever improved our society.
The memorial to Mary McLeod Bethune, among my favorite landmarks to women, features a statue located in Lincoln Park, East Capitol Street, S.E. Inscribed around the base are words from “My Last Will and Testament,” her classic article published in “Ebony Magazine”: I leave you love . . . I leave you hope . . . . I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another . . . I leave you respect for the uses of power . . . .”
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