A Florida museum may be the new location for the statue of a Confederate General currently in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. On Thursday, a state panel approved the Lake County Historical Society and Museum’s application to become the new home of the likeness of Edmund Kirby Smith. Bob Grenier is the curator of the museum located in Tavares, which he says is a prime location for the statue.
“We are in the center of the state,” he said, during a meeting of the General Edmund Kirby Smith Statue Location Selection Committee. “We believe that this is a work of art that needs to be fair and easy accessibility for all Floridians to come and see. I think that’s really important.”
This is just one more step in having a statue of civil rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune replace Kirby Smith’s, as one of two statues representing Florida in Washington D.C. If the state gets approval from the Joint Library of Congress, Bethune would be the first black woman to appear in National Statuary Hall.
State tuned to Friday's Capitol Report for more on this story.
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