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WASHINGTON - History was unveiled at the United States Capitol in Washington on Wednesday when a marble statue of civil-rights leader Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune officially went on display.
The likeness of Bethune replaces a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, which stood in the Capitol for nearly a century. Bethune, who died in 1955, is now the first Black person to represent a state in the Statuary Hall collection. Bethune's statue represents her home state of Florida.
Florida Congresswoman Val Demings was at the ceremony and talked about what Bethune's legacy means to her as a Black woman.
"I remember as a little girl, listening to my mother and father talk about a Black woman. A woman who looked like us. Who started a college. An institution of higher learning in Florida," Demings said. "As I listened to my parents tell the story, it seemed impossible. But Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune made what seemed impossible – possible."
"Dr. Bethune’s story and legacy is one that resonates with so many Floridians and Americans, and countless generations of visitors will now learn about her life’s work as an educator, civil-rights leader and force for good," U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said in a statement.
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Bethune in 1904 founded what became Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach and later served as an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt.
Florida lawmakers in 2016 voted to replace the Smith statue amid a nationwide backlash against Confederate symbols that followed the 2015 shooting deaths of nine Black worshippers at a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C. The Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott approved the use of Bethune’s likeness in 2018.
The Smith statue was removed from the U.S. Capitol in September after representing Florida since 1922. The St. Augustine-born Smith commanded Confederate forces west of the Mississippi during the Civil War and spent his later years as a college professor in Tennessee.
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 12: View of the Mary McLeod Bethune statue in Lincoln Park in Washington, DC on August 11, 2013. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The statue has gone to the state’s Museum of Florida History, but no plans have been announced to publicly display it.
Each state is represented by two statues in the National Statuary Hall. Florida’s other statue depicts John Gorrie, who is widely considered the father of air conditioning.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.