On July 13, a statue of Floridian Mary McLeod Bethune, a renowned educator and Civil Rights activist, will be emplaced in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Congress, replacing the statue of former Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith. The latter statue, emplaced in 1922 by the state of Florida, is one of several representing Confederate leaders who were chosen by their states for this honor.
Among those Confederate statues remaining are Jefferson Davis (Mississippi), Alexander Stephens (Georgia), and Wade Hampton (South Carolina).
In late 2020 the statue of Robert E. Lee (Virginia) was removed, and it will eventually be replaced by one of Barbara Johns, a young woman who led protests against school segregation.
In response to this change, I have updated my book, “The Civil War in Statuary Hall,” the only one which has been written on this topic. It is available at my author’s page at amazon.com, https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HV4SSWK
Here are photos of the new statue and my book:
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 