Statue of Daisy Bates closer to replacing image of white supremacist in U.S. Capitol
Bates, co-founder of the Arkansas State Press newspaper, was a mentor to the nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
A statue of late civil rights pioneer Daisy Bates is one step closer to being completed and replacing an image of a white supremacist currently housed in the U.S. Capitol.
The statue of Bates will be located in Statuary Hall and will be one of two replacing the century-old figures of secessionist attorney Uriah Rose and Arkansas Gov. James P. Clarke, who supported white supremacy, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The other new statue is of music icon Johnny Cash.
Shealyn Sowers, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office, said the clay figures have been finished for some time. Due to the congressional timeline, the engineering packets and approvals took longer than state authorities intended.
Nevertheless, Sowers hoped things would continue to move along so the statue could be installed this year. Now, she said, the statues “can go to be bronzed.”
Bates was a mentor to the nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. She co-founded with her husband, L.C. Bates, the Arkansas State Press newspaper, which covered Black community and civil rights concerns. They were involved in the NAACP, and Bates was the sole female speaker during the 1963 March on Washington’s official program.
During a 2019 legislative discussion about who would best represent the state, then-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson campaigned for Bates and Cash. At the time, some lawmakers had indicated that Sam Walton, the founder of the massive retail chain Walmart, based in Arkansas, would be a better choice.
“The history of the civil rights struggle in Arkansas is an essential part of our story that says much about courage and who we are as a state,” Hutchinson said in a press release following the 2019 session. “Daisy Bates was a key person in that story. She continues to inspire us.”
In June, the commissions to produce the likenesses of Bates and Cash went to Little Rock-based sculptor Kevin Kresse and fellow artist Benjamin Victor of Boise, Idaho.
“I couldn’t be happier about Arkansas’s choices,” Kresse said in a Facebook post, according to the Gazette.
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