When I was traveling earlier this year, I had the chance to stop in on my friend and colleague Nick Sarpy, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Little Rock. Afterward, I spent some time walking along the Arkansas River and found myself in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in Riverfront Park.

I always love finding places where a community has used public space not just to decorate, but to tell a deeper story about who we are and what we value.

The piece that really stopped me was the sculpture honoring the women’s suffrage movement.

The monument sits in the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Plaza in Riverfront Park. Created by sculptor Jane DeDecker, it was dedicated in 2019 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Arkansas adopting the 19th Amendment.

What I love about it is that it does not portray history as one woman standing alone. It shows women standing together.

The sculpture includes national suffrage leaders like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Stanton Blatch, Alice Paul, and Ida B. Wells. It also honors Arkansas women, including Josephine Miller Brown and Bernie Babcock, who helped carry the movement forward here at home.

That feels exactly right.

The fight for women’s right to vote was not quick. It was not easy. It was not polite in the way people often want change to be polite. It took generations of women speaking, organizing, marching, writing, risking their reputations, and refusing to accept that democracy could be complete while half the population was left without a voice.

It Is titled “Every Word We Utter.” And that title says so much.

Words matter. Voices matter. Votes matter.

It is easy now to look back and assume progress was inevitable. But it was not inevitable to the women who fought for it. It was contested. It was delayed. It was dismissed. And the women who stood for the cause sometimes had to sacrifice their physical health and safety. 

And still, they kept going.

That is one of the reasons public art matters. A sculpture like this gives us a chance to stop, even for just a moment, and remember that rights we may take for granted today were won by people who had to insist that the country live up to its own promises.

I’ve visited a lot of communities, and the ones that move me most are the ones that understand public spaces can do more than provide a pretty view. They can teach. They can challenge. They can remind us who made the road a little wider for those who came after them.

Little Rock’s Riverfront Park does that beautifully. With the Arkansas River as the backdrop, this sculpture garden is not just a collection of art. It is a civic classroom, an outdoor place of memory, and a reminder that democracy is always strengthened when more people are heard.

I left especially grateful for the women who would not be quiet, would not step aside, and would not accept a version of America that did not include their voice.

That is a story worth telling.

And it is a story worth remembering every time we step into a voting booth.

About Ron on the Road

Ron Holifield speaks to over 2,000 local government officials annually and has coffee with over 250 local government officials each year as part of his travels. If you have a cool site you think he should visit, email Ron@CivicMarketplace.com. 

NOTE: This column was written with the assistance of Melissa Valentine, senior director of operations and support at Civic Marketplace. 

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