It's interesting to me that Bethune is being honored, and not the least of the reasons is that in 1930 Ida M. Tarbell was asked by Pictorial Review to nominate 50 women who, in her judgment, were the most outstanding in society. One of those she chose was Bethune. While today we might not think much about that for the year 1930 that was a bold move on Tarbell's part. Bethune herself acknowledged how special it was to be selected and related to Tarbell when they finally met face to face that a friend of hers who lived in Chicago called Bethune late at night after it was announced. Bethune had no idea what her friend was talking about. She told Tarbell that one of the benefits of being named was that a grant her school was seeking was given quick approval after the list came out.
Tarbell didn't get much pushback from people for naming Bethune, although I haven't gone through all her papers yet. What I find equally interesting is that while it made the African-American version of the Associated Press, very few AA papers even mentioned it either as news story or on the editorial page. I suspect that while they were happy for Bethune, they didn't feel Tarbell deserved any special praise or credit for acknowledging what they already knew to be the truth.
I cannot discover if a Barbara Rose Johns statue has replaced the statue of RELee, rightly removed by Virginia on December 21, 2020. Do you have any insight on that? At age 16, Barbara Johns was a hero of civil rights in Virginia and an example to the entire country. A bust of Thurgood Marshall also has yet to replace one of Roger B. Taney in the Capital. Perhaps the placement of Dr. Bethune’s statue will help these others move in.
Very nice to see a leading educator honored in this way.
Kevin,
It's interesting to me that Bethune is being honored, and not the least of the reasons is that in 1930 Ida M. Tarbell was asked by Pictorial Review to nominate 50 women who, in her judgment, were the most outstanding in society. One of those she chose was Bethune. While today we might not think much about that for the year 1930 that was a bold move on Tarbell's part. Bethune herself acknowledged how special it was to be selected and related to Tarbell when they finally met face to face that a friend of hers who lived in Chicago called Bethune late at night after it was announced. Bethune had no idea what her friend was talking about. She told Tarbell that one of the benefits of being named was that a grant her school was seeking was given quick approval after the list came out.
Tarbell didn't get much pushback from people for naming Bethune, although I haven't gone through all her papers yet. What I find equally interesting is that while it made the African-American version of the Associated Press, very few AA papers even mentioned it either as news story or on the editorial page. I suspect that while they were happy for Bethune, they didn't feel Tarbell deserved any special praise or credit for acknowledging what they already knew to be the truth.
Best
Rob
Thanks for the additional information.
I cannot discover if a Barbara Rose Johns statue has replaced the statue of RELee, rightly removed by Virginia on December 21, 2020. Do you have any insight on that? At age 16, Barbara Johns was a hero of civil rights in Virginia and an example to the entire country. A bust of Thurgood Marshall also has yet to replace one of Roger B. Taney in the Capital. Perhaps the placement of Dr. Bethune’s statue will help these others move in.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/us/barbara-johns-virginia-statue-capitol-trnd/index.html
I don't know the current status of the Barbara Johns statue, but it has not yet been placed in the Capitol Building.
https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art?search&artist=All&collection%5B119%5D=119&state=All&location=All