Will a Civil Rights Icon Soon Push Jefferson Davis Off His Pedestal?
I didn’t think it was possible, but the state of Arkansas has managed to embarrass its neighbor Mississippi with the dedication of a new statue in the United States Capitol Building. The Arkansas legislature recently voted to replace its two statues in Statuary Hall with one honoring Johnny Cash and the other Daisy Bates.
Bates served as the President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and helped to organize students to help desegregate the state’s public schools after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Ed. in 1954.
Most of you already know that each state is represented by two statues in the Capitol Building, which are intended to represent their respective histories and values. A number of states have taken steps or are in the process of swapping out statues, especially those represented by Confederate leaders.
It just so happens that the Bates statue is located next to Jefferson Davis, who still represents Mississippi. Think about that juxtaposition for a second. Two former Confederate states, where legalized segregation held sway for decades into the twentieth century, one represented by the former president of the Confederacy and the other a civil rights icon.
That appears to be too much, even for Mississippi Republicans. This is the same political party that has largely rallied around the memory of Confederate symbolism in recent years.
Now don’t get too excited. The most recent legislative session ended without any action taken to replace the statues, but there is a growing chorus to address this issue in 2025.
That said, it’s another wonderful example of how the public face of Civil War memory has evolved over the past few decades.
In the meantime, it might be fun to come up with a list of suggestions of notable Mississippians for the state legislature to consider. Mississippi has an incredibly rich history Surely they should be able to come up with someone more worthy than Jefferson Davis.
There is no shortage of civil rights leaders, artists, educators, sports figures, entrepreneurs and business leaders, jurists and lawyers, physicians, military figures, and yes, even politicians.
Who would you choose to stand next to Daisy Bates?
Medgar Evers is an obvious and certainly worthy contender, but I am wondering who else might be considered.
What a - ahem - monumental achievement! And it hits me right in the travel agenda, too.
Tomorrow my wife and go to Little Rock to attend another Pilgrimage of Japanese Americans to the Rohwer and Jerome WW2 concentration camps. (This time, we're honoring Rosalie Gould, the former mayor of McGehee who restored the inmate-erected cemetery; she's a crisp and spry 99.)
Last year my cousin and I visited Central HS, Bates' historic home, and other sites on the Civil Rights Trail all the way to the MLK museum. I was already taking my wife to see Central HS; I wonder if anything will be going on in Little Rock while we're convening.
I imagine that if Arkansas's legislature passed a bill to replace the two statues, the governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, either had to sign it or she vetoed it and she was overridden. I prefer to hope against hope that she was a good sport.