It was created by artist Nilda Comas, who was chosen from a field of 1,600 applicants and is the first Hispanic master sculptor to create a statue for the National Statuary Hall State Collection. The 11-foot statue, which weighs more than 6,000 lbs., was sculpted out of the largest (and last) piece of statuary marble from Michelangelo's quarry in Italy. "We lift her up today at a time of competing ideologies to help heal and unify through her example, because she also lived at a time of division but was determined to stand up to dissenting voices, including the Ku Klux Klan, to do what many said could not be done," Castor said, adding that she hopes Bethune's statue will serve as a symbol of hope, justice and love for America and all humankind. Kathy Castor said at the ceremony that Bethune epitomizes all of the values the state - the first to be represented by a Black American in the National Statuary Hall - holds dear, from industriousness to thirst for education to desire to build peace. It was formally unveiled in a ceremony led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and featuring many of the lawmakers and activists who fought and fundraised for years to make the moment possible.įlorida Democratic U.S. The larger-than-life statue had been on display in its home state of Florida since October 2021, before making the journey to Washington, D.C. presidents and created a boarding school for Black children that would later become Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. Capitol's Statuary Hall, when her statue replaced that of a Confederate general.īethune, the daughter of formerly enslaved people, was an influential educator and activist who - among her many accomplishments - founded the National Council of Negro Women, advised multiple U.S. Nigel Cook/News-Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters CoĮducator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune made history on Wednesday as the first Black person to have a state-commissioned statue in the U.S. On Wednesday, the statue made its debut in the U.S. Members of the public view the newly unveiled statue of Mary McLeod Bethune at the News-Journal Center in Daytona Beach on Oct.
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