[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S770]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL LIBERTY MEMORIAL

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I have been glad to see that Lena Santos 
Ferguson is finally gaining recognition for her work to desegregate the 
Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1980, Mrs. Ferguson was turned 
away when she tried to join DAR. She was discriminated against even 
though she could trace her ancestry to Jonah Gay, who had supported the 
Revolution through the town committee of Friendship, ME.
  According to the Washington Post, one of Ferguson's White sponsors 
was told that, if Mrs. Ferguson was admitted, the DC chapter ``will 
probably fall apart.'' However, last month, the DAR renamed its 
Washington, DC, nursing scholarship as the ``Daughters of the American 
Revolution--Lena Ferguson Scholarship,'' doubled its size, and 
announced the upcoming placement of a plaque in honor of her work.
  It is a testament to the work of those such as Ferguson that the DAR 
has gone from threatening dissolution to naming a scholarship in her 
honor.
  Ferguson represented a much larger group of under-recognized Black 
Revolutionary War patriots. In 1984, when Ferguson was finally allowed 
to join the DAR, the settlement agreement had an impact well beyond one 
woman's effort for recognition. It led to new research and the 
identification of over 5,000 of the estimated 10,000 Black 
Revolutionary War participants.
  However, highlighting the contributions Black patriots made in the 
American Revolution does not end with DAR. That is why I worked with 
Senator Murphy to pass into law the National Liberty Memorial 
Preservation Act. Our bipartisan bill allows the National Mall Liberty 
Fund D.C.--a group founded by Maurice Barboza, Ferguson's nephew--to 
continue its work getting a monument to Black patriots on or near the 
National Mall in Washington, DC.
  Both this monument and the work of Mrs. Ferguson display the founding 
purpose of our Nation. Unlike almost every other country on Earth, 
Americans are not bound together by a common ethnicity or geographical 
ancestry. We are all Americans because we believe in the principles our 
country was founded upon. This is the common heritage of all Americans 
of all backgrounds. It is vital that we do not forget that bond and 
even more vital that we preserve the principles themselves and honor 
those of all backgrounds who fought for them.
  The construction of the National Liberty Memorial by July 4, 2026--
the 250th anniversary of our Nation's founding--would serve as another 
important reminder of that bond we share as Americans. I urge my fellow 
Americans to come together around that goal.

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