Establishment of the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument, 22503-22509 [2016-08970]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 73 (Friday, April 15, 2016)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 22503-22509]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08970]



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Vol. 81

Friday,

No. 73

April 15, 2016

Part III





The President





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Proclamation 9423--Establishment of the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality 
National Monument


                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 81 , No. 73 / Friday, April 15, 2016 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

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                Proclamation 9423 of April 12, 2016

                
Establishment of the Belmont-Paul Women's 
                Equality National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The Sewall-Belmont House (House), located at 144 
                Constitution Avenue, Northeast, in Washington, D.C.--a 
                few steps from the U.S. Capitol--has been home to the 
                National Woman's Party (NWP) since 1929. From this 
                House, the NWP's founder Alice Paul wrote new language 
                in 1943 for the Equal Rights Amendment, which became 
                known as the ``Alice Paul Amendment,'' and led the 
                fight for its passage in the Congress. From here, 
                throughout the 20th century, Paul and the NWP drafted 
                more than 600 pieces of legislation in support of equal 
                rights and advocated tirelessly for women's political, 
                social, and economic equality not just in the United 
                States but also internationally.

                While the House's role in women's history makes it a 
                nationally significant resource, the building itself 
                has an interesting past. Robert Sewall constructed the 
                House on Jenkins Hill, known today as Capitol Hill, 
                around 1800. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin 
                used the House during the Jefferson Administration, and 
                the House was the site of the only resistance to the 
                British invasion of Washington, D.C., during the War of 
                1812. In retaliation, the British set fire to the 
                House, but by 1820, Sewall had rebuilt it. The House 
                remained in the Sewall family until 1922, when it was 
                acquired by Vermont Senator Porter Dale.

                The NWP purchased the House in 1929 to serve as its 
                headquarters. The NWP named it the ``Alva Belmont 
                House'' in honor of its former president and major 
                benefactor who had helped purchase the NWP's previous 
                headquarters. A prominent suffragist herself, Belmont 
                said of the new headquarters, ``may it stand for years 
                and years to come, telling of the work that the women 
                of the United States have accomplished; the example we 
                have given foreign nations; and our determination that 
                they shall be--as ourselves--free citizens, recognized 
                as the equals of men.'' What is now called the Sewall-
                Belmont House became the staging ground for the NWP's 
                advocacy for an equal rights amendment and other 
                significant domestic and international action for 
                women's equality.

                Alice Paul, the women's suffrage and equal rights 
                leader closely associated with the Sewall-Belmont 
                House, led the NWP from its headquarters at the House 
                from 1929 to 1972. A Quaker and well educated, before 
                her work in the United States, Paul had been inspired 
                by the women's suffrage movement in Britain in the 
                early 20th century. During her years there from 1907 to 
                1910, she joined with Emmeline Pankhurst, her 
                daughters, and other suffragettes to secure the vote 
                for British women. Paul's participation in meetings, 
                demonstrations, and depositions to Parliament led to 
                multiple arrests, hunger strikes, and force-feedings.

                Paul brought home her focus on women's suffrage when 
                she returned to the United States in 1910. After 
                earning a Ph.D. in economics at the University of 
                Pennsylvania in 1912, she devoted herself to the 
                American suffrage movement. She feared that the 
                movement was waning at the national level because 
                efforts had shifted to State suffrage. Paul believed 
                that the movement

[[Page 22506]]

                needed to concentrate on the passage of a Federal 
                suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution.

                Paul became a member of the National American Woman 
                Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and by 1912 served as the 
                chair of its Congressional Committee in Washington, 
                D.C. In 1913, she and Lucy Burns created a larger 
                organization, the Congressional Union of Woman 
                Suffrage, which soon disagreed with NAWSA over tactics. 
                The Congressional Union split from NAWSA in 1914 and 
                evolved into the NWP through steps taken in 1916 and 
                1917.

                Paul was the most prominent figure in the final phase 
                of the battle for the Nineteenth Amendment to the 
                United States Constitution, ratified in 1920, granting 
                women the right to vote. As part of her strategy, she 
                adopted the philosophy to ``hold the party in power 
                responsible'' from her work on women's suffrage in 
                Britain. The NWP withheld its support from the existing 
                political parties until women gained the right to vote, 
                and ``punished'' those parties in power that did not 
                support suffrage. In 1913, the day before Woodrow 
                Wilson's first inauguration, Paul organized a women's 
                suffrage parade of more than 5,000 participants from 
                every State in the Union. Through a series of dramatic 
                nonviolent protests, the NWP demanded that President 
                Wilson and the Congress address women's issues. The NWP 
                organized ``Silent Sentinels'' to stand outside the 
                White House holding banners inscribed with incendiary 
                phrases directed toward President Wilson. The colorful, 
                spirited suffrage marches, the suffrage songs, the 
                violence the women faced as they were physically 
                attacked and had their banners torn from their hands, 
                the daily pickets and arrests at the White House, the 
                recurring jail time, the hunger strikes which resulted 
                in force-feedings and brutal prison conditions, the 
                national speaking tours, and newspaper headlines all 
                created enormous public support for suffrage.

                Through most of the last century, the NWP remained a 
                leading advocate of women's political, social, and 
                economic equality. Following ratification of the 
                Nineteenth Amendment, the NWP, under the leadership of 
                Alice Paul, turned its attention towards the larger 
                issue of complete equality of men and women under the 
                law. Paul reorganized the NWP in 1922 to focus on 
                eliminating all discrimination against women. In 1923, 
                at the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, 
                the first women's rights convention, Paul proposed an 
                equal rights amendment to the Constitution, which 
                became known as the ``Lucretia Mott Amendment,'' and 
                launched the campaign to win full equality for women. 
                In 1943, Alice Paul rewrote the amendment, which then 
                became known as the ``Alice Paul Amendment.'' What we 
                now refer to as the ``Equal Rights Amendment'' was 
                introduced in every session of Congress from 1923 until 
                it finally passed in 1972, though it still has not been 
                ratified by the required majority: three-fourths of the 
                States.

                Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the NWP drafted more 
                than 600 pieces of legislation in support of equal 
                rights for women on the State and local levels, 
                including bills covering divorce and custody rights, 
                jury service, property rights, ability to enter into 
                contracts, and the retention of one's maiden name after 
                marriage. It launched two major ``Women for Congress'' 
                campaigns in 1924 and 1926 and lobbied for the 
                appointment of women to high Federal positions. The NWP 
                also worked for Federal and State ``blanket bills'' to 
                ensure women equal rights and helped change Federal 
                laws to equalize nationality and citizenship laws for 
                women. The NWP fought successfully for the repeal of a 
                statute that prohibited Federal employees from working 
                for the Federal Government if their spouses also were 
                Federal employees. The NWP helped eliminate many of the 
                sex discrimination clauses in the ``codes of fair 
                competition'' established under the New Deal's National 
                Recovery Administration, and assisted in the adoption 
                of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Paul and the 
                NWP also played a role in getting language protecting 
                women included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

[[Page 22507]]

                Alice Paul and the NWP did not limit their fight for 
                women's rights to domestic arenas but also became 
                active in international feminism as early as the 1920s. 
                Among other actions, in 1938 Paul formed the World 
                Woman's Party, which served as the NWP's international 
                organization. It first assisted Jewish women fleeing 
                the Holocaust and then became the NWP's office for 
                promoting equal rights for women around the world. The 
                NWP helped both Puerto Rican and Cuban women in seeking 
                the vote, and in 1945 advocated successfully for the 
                incorporation of language on women's equality in the 
                United Nations Charter and for the establishment of a 
                permanent United Nations Commission on the Status of 
                Women.

                The political strategies and tactics of Alice Paul and 
                the NWP became a blueprint for civil rights 
                organizations and activities throughout the 20th 
                century. In 1997, the NWP ceased to be a lobbying 
                organization and became a non-profit, educational 
                organization. Today, the House tells the story of a 
                century of courageous activism by American women.

                WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code 
                (known as the ``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the 
                President, in the President's discretion, to declare by 
                public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and 
                prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic 
                or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands 
                owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be 
                national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof 
                parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall 
                be confined to the smallest area compatible with the 
                proper care and management of the objects to be 
                protected;

                WHEREAS, in 1974, the Secretary of the Interior 
                designated the Sewall-Belmont House a National Historic 
                Landmark for its association with Alice Paul, the NWP, 
                and the fight for equal rights, and later the same year 
                the Congress enacted legislation creating the Sewall-
                Belmont House National Historic Site, an affiliated 
                area of the National Park System;

                WHEREAS, the National Park Service completed a study in 
                November 2014, which recommended that the Sewall-
                Belmont House become a unit of the National Park System 
                and operate through cooperative management between the 
                National Park Service and the NWP;

                WHEREAS, for the purpose of establishing a national 
                monument to be administered by the National Park 
                Service, the NWP has donated to the Federal Government 
                fee title to the Sewall-Belmont House and the 
                approximately 0.34 acres of land on which it is 
                located;

                WHEREAS, the National Park Service and the NWP agree 
                that the NWP should continue to own and manage its 
                collection, which includes an extensive library and 
                archival and museum holdings relating to the women's 
                movement, and the NWP has indicated its intention to 
                enter into appropriate arrangements with the National 
                Park Service that would further the preservation of the 
                permanent collection at the Sewall-Belmont House and 
                provide for cooperative interpretation and management 
                activities with the National Park Service;

                WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and 
                protect the Sewall-Belmont House and the historic 
                objects associated with it;

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by section 320301 of title 54, United States Code, 
                hereby proclaim the objects identified above that are 
                situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or 
                controlled by the Federal Government to be the Belmont-
                Paul Women's Equality National Monument (monument) and, 
                for the purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as 
                a part thereof all lands and interests in lands owned 
                or controlled by the Federal Government within the 
                boundaries described on the accompanying map, which is 
                attached to and forms a part of this proclamation. The 
                reserved Federal lands and interests in lands encompass 
                approximately 0.34 acres. The boundaries described on 
                the accompanying map are confined to the smallest area 
                compatible with the proper care and management of the 
                objects to be protected.

[[Page 22508]]

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries described on the accompanying map are hereby 
                appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry, 
                location, selection, sale, or other disposition under 
                the public land laws, from location, entry, and patent 
                under the mining laws, and from disposition under all 
                laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.

                The establishment of the monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights.

                The Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) shall manage 
                the monument through the National Park Service, 
                pursuant to applicable legal authorities, consistent 
                with the purposes and provisions of this proclamation. 
                The Secretary shall prepare a management plan, with 
                full public involvement and in coordination with the 
                NWP, within 3 years of the date of this proclamation. 
                The management plan shall ensure that the monument 
                fulfills the following purposes for the benefit of 
                present and future generations: (1) to preserve and 
                protect the objects of historic interest associated 
                with the monument, and (2) to interpret the monument's 
                objects, resources, and values related to the women's 
                rights movement. The management plan shall, among other 
                things, set forth the desired relationship of the 
                monument to other related resources, programs, and 
                organizations, both within and outside the National 
                Park System.

                The National Park Service is directed to use applicable 
                authorities to seek to enter into agreements with 
                others, and the NWP in particular, to address common 
                interests and promote management efficiencies, 
                including provision of visitor services, interpretation 
                and education, establishment and care of museum 
                collections, and preservation of historic objects.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however, the monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation.

                Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not 
                to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature 
                of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any 
                of the lands thereof.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and fortieth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3295-F6-P


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[FR Doc. 2016-08970
Filed 4-14-16; 11:15 a.m.]
Billing code 4310-10-C