Mary McLeod Bethune, the civil rights activist and founder of Bethune-Cookman University, will replace the confederate statue at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.  

The Bethune statue, which stands permanently in February 2022, will make her the first Black person to represent a state in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol.  

The statue stands 11 feet tall and weighs over 6,000 pounds. It depicts Bethune in a cap and gown to display what mattered most during her thriving era: education.  

The Bethune figure also has her books stacked high next to her. 

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“Dr. Bethune embodies the very best of the Sunshine State—Floridians and all Americans can take great pride in being represented by the great educator and civil rights icon,” U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said in a statement.    

Nilda Comas created the Bethune figure. Comas is a world-renowned sculptor who divvies her time between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Pietrasanta, Italy.  

According to NPR, Comas will become the first Latina sculptor with a piece in the National Statuary Hall Collection.  

The Bethune statue replaces Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. In September, the Confederate monument was removed and temporarily transported to a Florida museum.  

Before moving to Florida with her husband, Albert, Bethune studied at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago as the only Black student. There, she put together Sunday school, worked in the city jail and helped to feed hundreds of people with the Pacific Garden Mission.  

Bethune, the daughter of enslaved parents, taught in Palatka, Florida, where she learned about the poor living and educational conditions of Black residents of Daytona Beach.  

She soon started a school in Daytona to provide Black girls the best education possible.  

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The school combined with the Cookman Institute, an all-male school at the time. The unified schools formed Bethune-Cookman in 1923.  

Two years after the school was formed, Bethune became the National Association of Colored Women’s Club president. She late founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935.  

“If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving,” Bethune said in her final will and testament.