That the City Council formally go on record in asking the City Manager to work with the appropriate City Staff in formulating an RFP for a public arts project that will acknowledge the unfinished work of the 19th Amendment, the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and how the two pieces of legislation ultimately complemented one another in helping to shape a more perfect union, and that the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council on this matter in a timely manner.

WHEREAS:

Beginning in 2019, the City of Cambridge began internal deliberations on how to properly commemorate the August 2020 centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which enshrined the right of women to vote in this country’s elections; and 

WHEREAS:

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic dictated that the City’s efforts would largely focus upon the establishment of a public arts display as a centerpiece of this commemoration, this was an idea that was rapidly gaining currency by the Fall of 2019; and 

WHEREAS:

While a process was initiated to find a suitable artist to bring forth ideas on what this public arts display might ultimately look like, it has concurrently been recognized that an additional public arts display underscoring the fact that for women of color, the rights enshrined in the 19th Amendment, which are rightfully being recognized for their centennial anniversary this year, for the most part in much of the country excluded women of color (among many other groups of women), who were forced to wait an additional 45 years for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to ensure that they, too, had a full voice in their democracy; and 

WHEREAS:

In establishing a separate public arts display to draw attention to the fact that women and men of color were largely denied the right to vote until 1965 in much of the country, the City of Cambridge will once again show how communities can celebrate our history, in all its complexity, as both a way of better understanding our past and of engaging us all to think more critically about how we can work to build a better, more inclusive future; now therefore be it 

ORDERED:

That the City Council formally go on record in asking the City Manager to work with the appropriate City Staff in formulating an RFP for a public arts project that will acknowledge the unfinished work of the 19th Amendment, the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and how the two pieces of legislation ultimately complemented one another in helping to shape a more perfect union, and that the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council on this matter in a timely manner.