Sixty years ago, on August 31, 1960, Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-N.Y.) submitted to the Congressional Record a statement on House Joint Resolution 311 that cleared the way for the erection of the Taras Shevchenko monument in Washington.
The resolution was brought up for the third reading by Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas), and was passed by the Senate on August 31.
Sen. Javits’ statement read: “More than 100 years ago Taras Shevchenko hailed the first President of the United States George Washington, and the new Republic, hoping for the day when Ukraine will join the family of free nations. Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) was without a doubt one of the foremost Ukrainians of the modern period. His poetry has inspired the men and women of his period and later times with a renewed love of freedom and a consciousness of their identity and traditions as Ukrainians. It has been the medium through which the Ukrainians, in his day a downtrodden mass of serfs on the lands of their Russian and Polish masters, have become a self-conscious group of patriotic citizens, willing to risk their lives and fortunes in pursuit of their national independence. More than that, Shevchenko’s poetry has taught them the need for human brotherhood and provided with ideals of Ukrainian participation in the great company of free nations. The centenary of Shevchenko’s death will serve to remind his countrymen now behind the Iron Curtain of their heritage and ideals of liberty and independence. The statue to be erected in his honor in 1961 will serve notice to his countrymen that they are not forgotten by the free world.”
As the editorial of that same issue noted, the enacted legislation awaited President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s signature and a site was yet to be finalized. The passage of the resolution capped “months of uneasing and tireless effort and work both in Washington and throughout the country.”
Among those acknowledged in the editorial for their work were Sens. Javits, Theodore Green (D-R.I.) and Kenneth Keating (R-N.Y.), including their staffs, as well as Sens. Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-Ill.), Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn.), Henry Styles Bridges (R-N.H.) and their staffs.
“The passage of the bill on Shevchenko’s statue is undoubtedly one of the great and important accomplishments of the Ukrainian American community,” the editorial noted. “It opens the way now for an unprecedented Shevchenko Centennial next year. This task rests now with the Shevchenko Centennial Committee, especially organized to prepare a dignified centennial observance of Taras Shevchenko’s death in 1961. … It is now the duty and task of our people to present the finest Shevchenko Centennial that we are capable of and which Shevchenko so richly deserves.”
The Shevchenko monument – which was officially unveiled on June 27, 1964, on the 150th anniversary of the great bard’s birth – has served as a meeting place for Ukrainian events, concerts, protests, rallies and commemorations in the nation’s capital. The monument grounds are maintained by the National Parks Service.
Source: “Senate says ‘aye’ on Shevchenko monument, Senator Javits makes a statement,” The Ukrainian Weekly, September 13, 1960.