The new monument will be erected in Newcastle, Maine.
WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden signed a proclamation on Dec. 16 establishing a monument for Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet secretary.
The monument to Perkins, who served as the U.S. labor secretary from 1933 to 1945 and died in 1965, will be erected in Newcastle, Maine, according to the White House.
Biden signed the proclamation during a visit to the Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building in Washington.
He delivered remarks before signing the document, calling Perkins one of America’s “greatest labor leaders.”
“In decades of service, she became a fierce defender of unions and workers,” Biden said.
“Frances Perkins and a generation of activists and labor leaders laid the groundwork for much of what we’ve accomplished in the last four years.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Perkins the labor secretary the same year he entered office, and kept her in place until he died in 1945. Roosevelt is the only person in American history to serve as president for more than two terms.
With her 12 years in service, Perkins became the longest-serving labor secretary in American history.
She played a pivotal role in Roosevelt’s New Deal, sweeping economic programs that created a minimum wage, the Social Security Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Biden’s move came amid recent reports from several media outlets, citing anonymous sources, that President-elect Donald Trump has suggested downsizing or eliminating the FDIC, a key banking regulator.
In his remarks, Biden criticized Trump, accusing him of wanting to cut entitlement programs like Social Security, a claim Trump has denied.
During her time in office, Perkins also oversaw the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which managed the U.S. entry ports. She was a strong advocate for immigrants and refugees, playing a key role in assisting German Jews escaping Nazi persecution.
“I came to Washington to work for God, [Roosevelt], and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen,” Perkins said at one point.
The White House said in a fact sheet that Perkins told Roosevelt that if she accepted the position of labor secretary, “she intended to execute an ambitious plan to protect American workers.” The fact sheet stated that during her 12 years as secretary of labor, “Perkins accomplished nearly everything on her list and laid the groundwork for the labor policy and social safety net that we continue to build on today.”
The new monument boundary will cover an area including the 57-acre Frances Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark site in Newcastle, where she spent many childhood summers and took breaks as an adult. The site includes the family home, a barn, and gardens.
Establishing the new monument is part of Biden’s vow to honor the role of women in history.
“Women and girls of all backgrounds have shaped our country’s history, from the ongoing fight for justice and equality to cutting-edge scientific advancements and artistic achievements. Yet these contributions have often been overlooked,” he wrote in an executive order in March. “We must do more to recognize the role of women and girls in America’s story, including through the Federal Government’s recognition and interpretation of historic and cultural sites.”
The federal government on Monday also said it was establishing five new historic landmarks, including the Charleston Cigar Factory, also known as the American Cigar Company Building, in Charleston, South Carolina, where cigar factory workers went on strike in 1945 to advocate for improved pay and working conditions.
Speaking at the event, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that Biden’s order was an “important step toward rectifying a fairly unsurprising truth.”
She noted that women are still underrepresented in American history books and national parks.
“Honoring Frances Perkins with a national monument does more than acknowledge her work to establish Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage and overtime pay, it is a challenge for us,” Acting Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “We must all remember that the gains we enjoy today were not gifts, they were hard-fought victories.”
Ahead of the speech, the White House also issued a statement highlighting Biden’s record as the most pro-union and pro-worker president, citing actions such as creating the Made in America office, requiring Project Labor Agreements for major federal construction projects, signing the Butch Lewis Act to protect over one million pensions, and becoming the first president to join a picket line.