Civil rights leader Daisy Bates honored with statue at US Capitol
Source: Reuters
May 8, 2024 7:15 PM EDT Updated 9 hours ago
U.S. civil rights leader Daisy Bates is honored with a statue at US Capitol in Washington in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee Beal
WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The late U.S. civil rights leader and journalist Daisy Bates, who was instrumental in desegregating Arkansas public schools in the 1950s, was honored with a statue of her that was unveiled on Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol.
The bronze statue depicts Bates, who died in 1999 at the age of 84, with a newspaper in one hand and a notebook and pen in the other. It will be joined later this year by another Arkansas entry, honoring the late singer Johnny Cash, according to the office of House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.
When a black veil was pulled off the Bates statue, it faced another U.S. civil rights icon, Rosa Parks at the other end of Statuary Hall. Bates and her husband together published an Arkansas newspaper dedicated to the civil rights cause. She also served as the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP.
The U.S. Capitol allows each of the 50 states to choose two statues for the National Statuary Hall and surrounding prominent hallways. Arkansas' state legislature in 2019 decided to replace both of its entries.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/civil-rights-leader-daisy-bates-be-honored-with-statue-us-capitol-2024-05-08/
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