How a Forgotten Poem Transformed the Statue of Liberty

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before the Statue of Liberty became a beacon for newcomers, it was simply a gift from France that struggled to find a purpose. To raise money for the statue's pedestal, Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet about the sculpture, never expecting it to be more than a throwaway donation. Years later, as anti-immigrant fervor spread through the country, her friend Georgina Schuyler returned to the poem and recognized the power in its plain plea for mercy.

Professor Elizabeth Stone shares the story of how Schuyler quietly worked to place The New Colossus inside the statue's pedestal and, in doing so, changed the meaning of the monument itself.

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