Bethune statue will give state a legacy of excellence to uphold in education
Florida hasn’t always been on the right side of history when it concerns social justice, but this month, the state took a long overdue step in rectifying a wrong and embarrassing emblem at the U.S. Capitol.
Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed the ball to swap out a statue of a Confederate general for Mary McLeod Bethune inside the National Statuary Hall when he submitted a letter to the capital on Bethune’s birthday, July 10.
Bethune, a civil rights activist, successful business owner and founder of the private school Bethune-Cookman University, will be the first black person to have a statue installed inside the hall by a state commission. Rosa Parks, who also has a statue inside the hall, was added by a special act of Congress in 2005.
Each state is allotted two submissions into the illustrious hall by the Architect of the Capitol. Florida’s other representative is Dr. John Gorrie, considered the father of air conditioning.
One gave us the refreshment of cool air and the other gave us empowerment through education.
In Florida, you’re equally thankful for both.
Lawmakers voted in 2018 to have Bethune placed in the hall. Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill into law and DeSantis sent the official request to the architect on July 10, the 144th anniversary of Bethune’s birth.
Removing Confederate statues from public institutions is still controversial. Some believe Confederate statue removals eradicate important pieces of history. Others believe Confederate statues deify treasonous behavior and the inhumane institution of slavery.
For context, Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith’s greatest accomplishment was considered to be outliving the other Civil War generals. Florida lawmakers were not only right to remove his statue from the U.S. Capitol, but were more than 90 years late — the statue was installed at the Capitol in 1922.
By the time Smith was being immortalized at the Capitol, Bethune had already built a school from practically nothing.
The people in this hall are supposed to represent the ideals and pride of our state. And Bethune’s life and legacy certainly captured that.
Even 50 years before the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case desegregated public schools, Bethune worked tirelessly to create access to quality education for black students in Daytona Beach.
She opened a boarding school in 1904 with less than two dollars and a handful of students. Her small school would later blossom into a private university with more than 4,000 students.
It’s worth noting she accomplished all of this as a divorced mother raising a son during the height of racist and sexist regimes in the deep south.
To paraphrase the late American poet Langston Hughes, life was no crystal staircase for Mrs. Bethune. And yet, she created a powerful legacy that has endured 115 years later.
Florida’s decision to submit Bethune to the hall sends a message that in our state, education is just as important to survival as air.
With this in mind, lawmakers have work to do in continuing to build our public and private education systems with equal fervor, proportionate funding and accountability.
Florida remains one of the worst states in the nation for public school teaching salaries prompting an exodus of teachers that has created alarming shortages across the state. Florida’s teachers union counted 2,200 vacancies halfway through the 2018-19 school year, which was about 700 more than the previous school year during the same period.
Private schools saw their share of troubles too, with poor oversight while receiving close to $1 billion dollars in state scholarships as documented in the Orlando Sentinel’s 2017 investigation series “Schools Without Rules.”
Florida’s standard for education can’t be average anymore. We need to continue to strive for excellence no matter the challenges.
Access and excellence are the hallmarks of Mary McLeod Bethune’s legacy and now it’s likely going to be in the National Statuary Hall in 2020.
This gives Floridians a standard to be proud of and a charge to uphold.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jay Reddick, David Whitley, Shannon Green and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.