Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, July 2, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a law declaring the chamber

previously used as the House of Representatives to be a statutory hall honoring citizens

who had performed distinguished service.

Each state was invited to contribute statues of two deceased residents which would then

adored this hall and the United States Congress building and so the hall started to fill up with

statues of notable Americans. Eventually there would be a hundred statues for 50 states. There's also

two for Washington DC, interesting enough, get statues, we don't get voting rights, a statue for the country as a whole,

and since 2013 there's been a statue of Rosa Parks there, which is the first full-length statue

of an African-American person in the United States

capital.

No surprise, this question of who is represented in those statues and what that particular story

tells about American history.

That's an ongoing question.

And let's look into that question now

and take a tour through the Statuary Hall,

the US capital here, as always,

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

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