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Editorial: Good choices for new Capitol statue

 
Published June 24, 2016

Florida has an opportunity to honor one of its favorite daughters with a tribute in the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Civil rights pioneer and educator Mary McLeod Bethune and author and environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas are among three nominees to represent Florida in the Capitol's Statuary Hall, where statues of two iconic citizens from each of the 50 states are displayed. Florida legislators wisely decided to remove the likeness of a little-known Confederate general and solicited names of replacements. While any of the three finalists would be an improvement, Bethune or Douglas would be a particularly inspired choice.

Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith was never an appropriate pick to represent Florida. A Confederate general who kept fighting for two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he left Florida for Tennessee after the Civil War and became a college professor. Yet his likeness has stood in the Capitol since 1922.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature agreed to remove Smith's statue this year, and the state created an online survey to accept names of possible replacements. A committee narrowed the list to Bethune, Douglas and Publix founder George Jenkins, and the Legislature will vote next spring on the final choice. All three are preferable to Smith. Jenkins and his grocery chain have made an indelible mark on Florida, but lawmakers should seize the chance to honor one of these two admirable women.

Born in 1875 to former slaves, Bethune led a trailblazing life that would be remarkable even if she were living it today. She was the first African-American to head a federal agency, and when President Harry Truman appointed her to the founding meeting of the United Nations, she was the only woman of color among the delegates. She founded Bethune-Cookman University, which now enrolls 3,800 and targets high school students who struggle to gain admission elsewhere. Bethune was the runaway choice in the online survey.

Douglas, who was 108 when she died in 1998, wrote The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947, foretelling the threats to the unique ecosystem posed by development. She is regarded as the chief protector of Everglades National Park and one of the state's first environmental activists.

Florida can make a bold statement with the next statue it puts in the U.S. Capitol. Bethune would be the first African-American. She or Douglas would be just the ninth woman. Choosing either of them would be an appropriate way to honor their historic contributions.