Why is the Statue of Liberty controversial?

Instead of representing freedom and justice for all, the Statue emphasized the bitter ironies of America's professed identity as a just and free society for all people regardless of race.



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Suffragists protesting during the opening ceremony objected to the use of a female figure to symbolize liberty when American women did not have the right to vote, and African American journalists expressed their ambivalence about the Statue in the wake of Reconstruction, signaling that its interpretation would become a ...

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Despite the positive meaning of the statue - American independence and the abolition of slavery - African Americans saw the statue as an ironic image of America; professing to be a country of freedom and justice for everyone regardless of race, despite racism and discrimination continuing to exist.

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The copper which clads the Statue of Liberty has oxidized and turned green due to its exposure to the elements. This patina actually helps to protect the underlying copper cladding of the statue. If it was cleaned off, eventually the entire copper covering would be eaten away.

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Similar to the United States flag, the Statue of Liberty is a tool to bring people together and unify them around the core ideas of freedom, peace, and opportunity.

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25 Facts to Celebrate the Statue of Liberty
  • The statue's full name is Liberty Enlightening the World.
  • It was a gift from France given to America in 1886.
  • The robed female figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom.
  • The statue measures 93 meters and weighs 204 metric tons.


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The Statue of Liberty has stayed this color for over a hundred years because all the exposed copper is now oxidized: she's stable at this point of her life.

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While Egypt rejected the idea as too costly, Bartholdi's initial vision of an “Arab peasant” evolved into one of a “colossal goddess” that he'd later apply to his Statue of Liberty design ( here ).

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The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), a colossal sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, underwent an extensive conservation-restoration between 1984 and 1986, in advance of its centennial.

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It's made of copper, which has oxidised naturally to form a green patina coating which actually protects the copper underneath. It took about 20 years for the Statue of Liberty to change from copper coloured to green!

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But beneath her copper skin of a few millimeters thick, the skeleton is beginning to disintegrate. Steven Ross stated that the steel straps that hold the copper to the steel framework would pull away, along with the rivets which could pull away over a period of 100 to 200 years.

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Her crown has seven points that represent rays of light and also the seven seas and continents; the original name for the statue is “Liberty Enlightening the World.” There are broken chains, or shackles, at her feet that also symbolize her freedom.

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As a national symbol, the image of the Statue of Liberty becomes synonymous with the American ideals of equality, democracy and freedom, represented in the museum collection by numerous artifacts and works of art.

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The Statue's shackles and feet. In 1886, The Statue of Liberty was a symbol of democratic government and Enlightenment ideals as well as a celebration of the Union's victory in the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

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