Mary McLeod Bethune statue becomes first Black American in US Capitol’s Statuary Hall
MOA Architecture is currently restoring the home of civil rights pioneer Mary McLeod Bethune on the campus of Bethune-Cookman University. The leader made history again this summer by being the first Black American in the National Statuary Hall inside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
Each state is represented in the hall by two statues of important figures in the state’s history. Dr. Bethune replaced a Confederate general as one of Florida’s two statues.
Bethune was born in South Carolina to former slaves and became an influential Black educator and civil and women’s rights leader. The boarding school she opened for Black children in 1904 later became Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Bethune advised five U.S. Presidents and served as the director of the National Youth Administration’s Office of Negro Affairs under President Franklin Roosevelt.