The CIA honors Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman as model spy with new statue
The CIA installed a statue of Harriet Tubman at its headquarters, saying she embodies the best traits of an intelligence officer — ingenuity, stealth, courage.
When CIA employees walk into their headquarters in suburban Virginia, they are now greeted by a young Black woman. She’s holding a lantern and armed with a pistol in her belt, looking fearless.
The woman is Harriet Tubman, a hero of the Underground Railroad, portrayed in a striking bronze statue recently unveiled at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley.
The idea for the statue came from CIA officers who studied Tubman in a leadership class, including her time spying for the Union Army during the Civil War.
Harriet Tubman.UniversalImagesGroup / Getty ImagesSeeing her as a skilled covert operator, the officers urged the agency to add a statue of Tubman to the sculptures already on the agency’s campus, officials said.
“What she did was an example of intelligence work, going behind enemy lines, using safe houses and signals intelligence to get people to freedom,” said Robert Beyer, director of the CIA’s museum.
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