Kansas Aviation Pioneer and advocate for women’s equal rights, Amelia Earhart, was honored today with a bronze statue in Congress. An effort that has taken more than two decades to accomplish. Congress will unveil the statue Wednesday, making Earhart the 11th woman enshrined in the National Statuary Hall Collection. The Kansas Legislature voted in 1999 to replace the state’s two statues with Earhart and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It took four years to get Eisenhower’s statue in Congress.
Karen Seaberg, founder and President of the Atchison Amellia Earhart Foundation, says “the time is long overdue for Amelia Earhart to take her rightful place in American history at the U. S. Capitol. The new Amelia Earhart Statue will stand as a symbol of her determination, tenacity and courage that will inspire future generations, particularly women and girls.”
Sunday, July 24, marked 125 years since Earhart’s birth. She was born July 24th, in 1897 in Atchison. In 1932 she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She disappeared in 1937, along with her plane and navigator Fred Noonan, while trying to circumnavigate the world.
