NEW YORK (AP) - Pioneering lawmaker Shirley Chisholm will be honored with a statue in the New York City borough she served as the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
City officials announced Friday that a monument to Chisholm will be installed at the entrance to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
The Brooklyn-born Chisholm served in Congress from 1969 to 1983. In 1972 she became the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. She died in 2005 at age 80.
The statue’s artist will be announced in early 2019, and city officials say it will be installed by the end of 2020.
The decision to honor Chisholm grew out of an initiative to erect more monuments to women in New York City’s public spaces. There are now just five statues of historical women.
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