THE PEOPLE ’ S CHOICE Mary McLeod Bethune Gets Statewide Support for Place in National Statuary Hall
When the Great Floridians Ad Hoc Committee of the Florida Division of Historical Resources met in June of 2016 to select candidates to represent Florida in the National Statuary Hall in the U . S . Capitol the list of names under consideration was long . But one stood out .
“ I am representing more than 14,000 graduates of Bethune- Cookman University ,” said Daisy Grimes , then a B-CU employee and one of three people to speak in support of Mary McLeod Bethune at the meeting . “ I am so pleased that Mary McLeod Bethune is on this list .”
The list Grimes referred to was a long one , with 259 unique names submitted through a public comment period to replace the statue of Confederate Gen . Edmund Kirby Smith in Washington D . C . A total of 130 names met the eligibility requirements for consideration , including Dr . Bethune , who was nominated by 1,237 of the nearly 3,200 people responding to the public comment request .
Dr . Timothy Parsons , director of the Division of Historical Resources of the Florida Department of State , moderated the meeting and outlined the process to place a new statue in the U . S . Capitol to represent Florida .
“ This is the first part of the process ,” he said at the 2016 meeting , referring to the selection of three names to be submitted to the Florida Legislature for consideration . The second part of the process would be choosing a sculptor to create the piece .
Parsons said while the selection of the person to be honored did not require public comment , state officials decided to take the step .
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