{"id":158972,"date":"2026-04-07T00:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158972\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:11:23","slug":"vote-for-which-quote-will-be-on-philadelphias-harriet-tubman-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158972\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote for which quote will be on Philadelphia\u2019s Harriet Tubman statue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iconic civil rights and abolitionist Harriet Tubman is being honored in front of Philadelphia\u2019s City Hall this year \u2013 and you can have a say in the quoted inscription that goes at the base of her statue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A temporary sculpture of Harriet Tubman initially popped up in front of City Hall<\/a> in 2022 as part of a traveling exhibit. It was so well received that the city commissioned the original sculptor, Wesley Wofford, to create a permanent statue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was met with lots of controversy<\/a>. Many residents said there was a lack of transparency and that the closed-door commission process<\/a> was unfair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Black artists and historians also expressed concerns that the call to artists was not open enough.<\/a> Wofford is a white man, and although Black artists said they did not doubt Wofford\u2019s ability<\/a> to depict Tubman, they emphasized there should\u2019ve been an opportunity for more artists to weigh in and offer their designs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following this, the city issued an open call for artists and went through several rounds of semi finals, ultimately choosing New York\/New Jersey-based artist Alvin Pettit.<\/a><\/p>\n

The new statue design depicts Tubman preparing to face her opposition, with Petit saying<\/a> she is captured in a moment that shows her \u201cas a conqueror.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Creative Philadelphia is now calling on Philadelphians to vote for an inspirational quote<\/a> that will be permanently inscribed at the base of the sculpture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The options were narrowed down from Philadelphians\u2019 suggestions of quotes that answered the question: \u201cWhat does it mean to walk in Harriet Tubman\u2019s footsteps today?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Out of 160 submissions, six finalists were chosen.<\/a> And now you can vote on which one resonates with you. Here are the options:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChoose courage over conformity; freedom over fear; liberation over limitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay courage, even in the face of oppression, always be our North Star.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen freedom was only a whisper, she became its voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCarry your light into the dark, for on the other side of fear is freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did not consider herself a hero, she just did what she knew was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew the way forward was going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can vote for your favorite in Creative Philadelphia\u2019s public survey online.<\/a> The winning quote will be revealed in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Iconic civil rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4877,227,50864,94,69,71,70,62838,43865],"class_list":{"0":"post-158972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-harriet-tubman","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","14":"tag-philadelphia-news","15":"tag-sculptures","16":"tag-statues"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}