Watch live: Mary McLeod Bethune statue to be unveiled at U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall
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A watch party is being hosted online Wednesday morning as the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall unveils a new marble statue of a Central Florida icon Mary McLeod Bethune — the founder of Bethune-Cookman University and champion of civil and women’s rights.
McLeod Bethune’s statue is one of two statues that will depict the Black educator, civil rights activist and suffragette. The other statue is made of bronze and will be unveiled in August at Bethune Plaza in Riverfront Esplanade Park in Daytona Beach.
The Statuary Hall statue will stand at 11-feet tall and is made of marble from the same Tuscan quarry that Michelangelo used from the Italian Alps. The block the sculpture was carved from weighs 11,500 tons.
At the foot of her statue is McLeod Bethune’s famous quote:
“Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it may be a diamond in the rough.”
McLeod Bethune will be the first African American woman to represent a state in Statuary Hall
McLeod Bethune was born near Mayesville, South Carolina, in 1875 and was the fifteenth child of former slaves, according to the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Statuary Fund. She championed women’s rights to join the military, became a world-renowned educator, civil rights and human rights leader, and served as an advisor to five U.S. presidents.
The Statuary Fund was able to raise $400,000 for the creation of McLeod Bethune’s statue and an additional $150,000 for the bronze statue. In total, the fund raised $800,000 for the entirety of the project, which included a full length documentary and the ability to host the marble statue at an exhibit at Daytona Beach.
The live stream unveiling begins at 10:30 a.m.. The unveiling is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and can be viewed here www.speaker.gov/live.
