Florida moves closer to replacing Confederate general statue in Capitol

A statue of civil-rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune is getting support in both chambers of the Legislature as a replacement for a Confederate general who has long represented Florida in the U.S. Capitol.

Over the objection of a senator who decried “cultural purging,” the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday voted 18-1 to support a proposal (SB 472 and SCR 184) aimed at replacing the statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in the National Statuary Hall in Washington. “We’re at a point in our history where we should recognize and embrace the diversity of our state,” former state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, an Orlando Democrat who initially pushed to replace the Smith statue, said while addressing the committee.

Bethune, who in 1904 founded what became Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, was president of the National Association of Colored Women, an appointee by President Herbert Hoover to the White House Conference on Child Health and served as an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt. The university has offered to pay for the statue.

The Legislature voted in 2016 to replace the Smith statue during a nationwide backlash against Confederate symbols in the wake of the 2015 shooting deaths of nine African-American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. However, lawmakers during the 2017 session did not reach agreement on whose likeness should replace Smith. In advance of the 2018 session, the House is also advancing a measure backing Bethune.

Sen. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who is the descendant of a Confederate soldier and who has defended the Confederate flag and memorials, said Bethune is worthy of the honor. But Baxley added that he opposed “dishonoring” Smith.

“Regrettably, I can’t vote for this because I think it’s supporting a continuation of cultural purging and dishonoring those who came before us,” Baxley said.

Meanwhile, several supporters of Smith said Wednesday the 2016 legislation isn’t “set in stone” and lawmakers should reconsider the decision.

“Smith fought for what he believed,” said Barbara Hemingway, of American First Team Manatee. “By removing our artifacts and historical statues it only closes the conversation about what history teaches us. Those lessons are valuable to define ourselves and to help improve on them.”

The West Point-educated Smith was born in St. Augustine but had few ties to the state as an adult. After surrendering and taking an oath of loyalty so he could return from Cuba, Smith spent his remaining years as an educator in Tennessee.