Mary McLeod Bethune Statue

Riverfront Esplanade - Beach Street & Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard

This original bronze work of art was created by Puerto Rican native Master Sculptor Nilda M. Comas, who did postgraduate work at Italy's Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, and has studied and apprenticed with sculptors in marble and bronze. It was created as a model for the three-ton marble sculpture she won the commission to carve of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune that was installed on July 13, 2022, in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., one of two figures chosen to represent the state of Florida. The original plaster model used to sculpt the final version in marble is in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C.

Bethune believed that learning was the key to a better life for African Americans. She founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls (known as Bethune-Cookman University since 2007) in 1904. The statue features a stack of books at her feet inscribed with core values from her last will and testament and include phrases like "Love," "A Thirst for Education," "Faith," "Racial Dignity," "Hope," "Peace," and "Courage". The three bands on each sleeve of her robe indicate doctoral status: Bethune was awarded nine honorary doctorates.

According to the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Statuary Project, the black marble rose in Bethune's left hand "symbolizes her belief that 'loving thy neighbor' means interracial, inter-religious and international brotherhood." Bethune saw a Black Velvet Rose in a Swiss garden, growing intermingled with roses of other colors. Afterwards, she began to refer to the students at her college as "black roses."

Her right hand rests atop a walking stick once owned by President Roosevelt. Bethune collected walking sticks—she appreciated the style and respect they conveyed but didn't require them for mobility—and Eleanor Roosevelt sent this one to Bethune after the president’s death. Its inclusion in this statue references Bethune's participation in Roosevelt's government and her role organizing the so-called "Black Cabinet" of advisors, the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, as well as serving on the U.S. delegation at the founding conference of the United Nations.

According to a video taken on August 18, 2022, at the unveiling ceremony in the Riverfront Esplanade, City of Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick L. Henry said, “Let this space remind us that nothing is impossible. If Dr. Bethune could do all of that then, under those circumstances, how much more can we, together, united, do under the current circumstances? May the light, life and legacy of our community’s most outstanding example of courage, love, humanity and submission to a cause more significant than self, may that light beam forth from this space into perpetuity.”

Timeline

1875 - Born in Mayesville, SC

1904 - Founded what is now Bethune-Cookman University

1945 - Participated in Founding Conference of United Nations

OCT-DEC 2021 - Marble Statue in Daytona Beach

JULY 13, 2022 - Marble Statue in National Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C.

AUGUST 18, 2022 - Bronze Statue unveiled in Daytona Beach & on permanent display