Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Statue in Florida
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to photograph the larger-than-life marble statue of civil rights pioneer, presidential advisor and renowned Black educator, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, at the News-Journal Center in Daytona Beach, FL before it was being transferred to the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. As the first state-commissioned statue of an African American, this project was led by University of Florida alum Bob Lloyd and sculpted by artist Nilda Comas, the first artist of Puerto Rican descent commissioned to sculpt a statue for the National Statuary Hall Collection.
The statue is made of Italian Carrara marble and carved by Comas in Pietrasanta, Italy. The combined statue and pedestal are 11 feet tall and weigh 6,129 pounds. Comas depicts an imposing, mature Bethune looking slightly downward, as though at a child. Her benevolent smile conveys her determined yet gentle demeanor. She holds a walking stick in her right hand and a black marble rose in her left, and she wears academic garb, including a mortarboard cap and tassel and a long robe. A dress with embroidered collar and lace details and a simple pearl necklace are visible below the open robe. Her shoes, with laces and sturdy heels, evoke pairs she wore when photographed in similar attire.
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was the founder of Bethune-Cookman College, Florida’s first institution of higher education for African Americans. Dr. Bethune’s statue replaced the statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
