ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s lifelong obsession with Harriet Tubman is propelling an effort to place a statue of the 19th century abolitionist in the U.S. Capitol.
The push to put Tubman’s marble likeness in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall is also being backed by both the state Senate and Assembly, which support the governor’s plan to swap out a statue of founding father Robert Livingston.
There are 100 statues in Statuary Hall — two for each state. The planned switch to Tubman would be the first change in one of New York’s spots since the likenesses of Livingston and George Clinton were shipped to Washington in the 1870s.
Hochul has been as big a booster of Tubman as anybody. Last year, she told a group of elementary school students about her childhood fascination with the Union Army spy.
“When I was in third grade, I had this one favorite book. It was called ‘The Story of Harriet Tubman,’” Hochul…
