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.