On July 13, NSS Elected Member, Nilda Comas’ portrait of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was unveiled at the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. The 11-foot-tall sculpture represents Florida, and commemorates Bethune, a world-renowned Florida educator, pioneer and activist. Bethune’s statue replaces a nearly 100-year-old bronze sculpture of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith and is the first Black person selected by a state for National Statuary Hall. Born into a family of South Carolina slaves, Bethune opened her own school for Black girls in 1904 with only $1.50 and just six students.  That school would become Bethune-Cookman College in 1929 and today it operates as Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, FL.  Comas carved the piece from a 11.5 ton piece of marble quarried from the same Tuscan quarry that Michelangelo used in the Italian Alps. 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.”

The event was attended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn as well as other lawmakers and activists.