Honoring a Legend

A statue honoring record-setting pilot Amelia Earhart recently landed in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. When the statue was unveiled in July, Earhart became one of only 11 women to be represented in the Capitol’s statue collection. 

The collection has statues of 100 Americans—two from each state. Earhart’s statue represents Kansas. She was born there in 1897. (The state’s other statue honors Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th U.S. president.) 

Earhart was a true legend. She took her first plane ride in 1920. Within a few years, her career as a pilot took off. In 1932, Earhart became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Three years later, she became the first person—man or woman—to fly from Hawaii to California.

But Earhart may be best known for her ill-fated 1937 journey. She attempted to become the first woman to fly around the world. Her plane disappeared somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. What happened to the famed pilot remains one of history’s biggest mysteries.

Sharice Davids is a U.S. representative from Kansas. She attended the ceremony to unveil the statue. Davids noted that Earhart wasn’t only a pilot. She was also a nurse’s aide, an author, and a leader in the fight for equal rights for women. 

“Kansans have long thought of Amelia as our hero,” Davids explained. “I cannot wait for the rest of the world to be reminded of her sense of courage,  duty, and imagination.”