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Anne Frank Statue stands at Founders Plaza of the National World War II Museum since September 12th, 2019. Frank (1929-1945) was a teenage girl to a German-Jewish family in Amsterdam, Netherlands when the second World War began. On her 13th birthday, she got a notebook with a lock and decided to use it as a diary. In it, she described her life, wrote her feelings and thoughts. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and the restrictions for Jews increased, the family created the impression they left in a hurry to Switzerland and went into hiding in a secret annex above the warehouse of the company her father worked. Their only connection to the outside world was several loyal employees of her father, who took care of them. In August 1944, the German police discovered them, sending them all to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Martha were sent to a concentration camp where they both found their deaths only a few weeks before the war ended. Her father, Otto, was the only survivor. When he came back to Amsterdam, a friend gave him a stack of papers she saved. Among them was Anne’s diary. In 1947, The Diary of a Young Girl was published and became one of the most famous testimonies of life under the Nazi regime. The statue depicts 13-year-old Frank standing, holding her diary to her chest with both hands. Behind her is a granite bench with a quote from the diary – “Sometime this terrible war will be over. Surely the time will come when we are people again, and not just Jews.” The New York sculpture firm, StudioEIS, created the statue from Anne’s pictures and a live model and actress who had appeared on the New York stage as Anne Frank. Among the many sculptures they created in the US are the Harriet Tubman statue at the Maryland Statehouse and the Virginia Women’s Monument. Read more...

This gilded bronze statue is a copy of the sculpture made in 1899 in Paris by Emmanuel Fremiet (there are nine more replicas around the world), to honor Joan of Arc, the French heroine, a pioneer female warrior who had a significant role in the 100 Years’ War. The statue was donated to the city in 1962 but erected only in 1972. It used to stand in International Trade Mart until in 1999 the property was bought, and it was moved to its current and far more proper location, near the French Market. Another statue of Joan of Arc in New Orleans is located in the St. Louis Cathedral, as she was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. An annual parade and festival are taking place in the city on Joan of Arc’s birthday, January 6th. The events are organized by the Krewe de Jeanne D’Arc. For more information on the parade click here. Read more...

The Sophie B Wright statue is a monument honoring the life and contribution of Sophie B Wright – a feminist, educator, healthcare promoter, and advocate for prison reform. The statue, sculpted by Enrique Alférez, and dedicated in 1988, depicts Wright sitting in an unusual position, looking sideways while holding a book in her hand. Wright’s facial expression portrays her fearless attitude, and her will to educate her community’s children. It is located at a park that was named after her upon her death in 1912. The park is near the former site of the Home Institute, a day and boarding school for girls which Wright operated. In July 2020, as part of the global George Floyd Protests, the statue was vandalized with “BLM” (Black Lives Matter) painted all over it in red spray, and a white hood was put on its head, to object of Wright’s support in segregation, and her membership in the Daughters of the Confederacy.   Read more...

In 1884, this memorial was dedicated to commemorate and honor Margaret Haughery, or as she was widely known, “Margaret of New Orleans,” “The Bread Woman of New Orleans,” and “Mother of Orphans.” It is one of the first memorials in the USA dedicated to a woman, created by Alexander Doyle, unveiled two years after Haughery’s death. Arriving in New Orleans in 1835 with her husband, with no money and soon before giving birth to a new baby, she was left alone a few months later. As an orphan herself, and now as a widow, Haughery dedicated her life and the money she earned, to support orphans and widows in New Orleans. At first, the money she donated originated from her wages, ironing in a laundry, and later from the businesses she built on her own, a dairy and bakery. While developing her business, she supported the building of several orphanages in the city, donated money produce from her business on a daily basis. When she died, she left all her assets besides the bakery to charities. After she passed away, the people of New Orleans gathered to build a statue to honor her contribution to the community. Read more...

Ruby Bridges Statue was dedicated on November 14th, 2014, in the courtyard of William Frantz Elementary School. Fifty-four years before, when Bridges was six years old, she was escorted to the school by federal marshals, for her personal security, as the first African-American girl in New Orleans to enroll in an all-white school.   This was a key event in the African-Americans struggle against school segregation in the south, which happened a few years after the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional in the famous Brown v. Board of Education case. During her first year at school, she was taught alone by only one teacher, Barbara Henry. It took a while till the boycott of the white parents was settled, and Bridges continued to study in desegregated schools till she graduated from high school. When she grew up, she continued her activism work and, in 1999, founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation to eliminate racism, segregation, and equal education to all. The William Frantz Elementary School was closed in 2008 and is now the home to the Akili Academy of New Orleans. Since the statue located inside the school courtyard, need to coordinate the visit with the school, at 504-355-4172. At the front door of the school building, there is a marker commemorating the day Bridges entered the school for the first time and made history. The area around the school is residential without tourist attractions. A mile and a half from it, there is a beautiful open street art area between 2239 St Claude Ave and 1101 Elysian Fields Ave. The French Quarter is 2.5 miles from the school. Bridges is also depicted in “The Remember Them: Champions for Humanity Monument” in downtown Oakland, California, and in a statue at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.   Join a guided-tour to learn more about the pioneer women of New Orleans: The Bad Broads Tour of New Orleans New Orleans’ Influential Women Private Walking Tour     More statues of iconic African-American women: Nancy Randolph Davis Fannie Lou Hamer Alice Allison Dunnigan Harriet Tubman Read more...

Mahalia Jackson Statue is located in her home town, New Orleans, next to a theater commemorating her memory, the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, at Louis Armstrong Park. Jackson was born in 1911, singing from a young age, but only years after moving to Chicago, rose to fame as the “Queen of Gospel”, introducing the genre to the world. Besides singing, she was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. The statue was made by Elizabeth Catlett, an African-American graphic artist and sculptor (who also made the Louis Armstrong statue in the park), and which she dedicated to the city in April 2010. Read more...