The Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus met Monday morning to hear details about the upcoming unveiling of the sculpture of Daisy Gatson Bates in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
The event will be held Wednesday, May 8, at 2 p.m. Central Time. House Speaker Mike Johnson will lead the unveiling, and speakers include Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sen. Tom Cotton, and Reps. French Hill and Bruce Westerman.
In Little Rock, a program beginning at 1 p.m. at Second Baptist Church will feature programming highlighting Bates' legacy, followed by a livestream of the unveiling from Washington, D.C.
The statue has purposefully not been previewed before its unveiling. Charles King, president of the Daisy Bates House Museum Foundation Board, stressed that artist Benjamin Victor's attention had been given to even the smallest details.
“He took the time to make sure that this statue is representative of Mrs. Bates," said King. "When he did bring the life-size mockup of the statue to Little Rock, one of our board members who was a friend of Mrs. Bates, she made a very low comment that Mrs. Bates didn't wear those kinds of shoes. Next thing we knew Benjamin went back, and he put her in the kind of heels that she wears.”
Daisy Bates was crucial to the desegregation efforts of Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. Her sculpture will replace the current statue of Uriah M. Rose, a prominent Arkansas lawyer of his time.
The statue will be placed next to the sculpture of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis and across from fellow civil rights leader Rosa Parks. Daisy Bates will be one of only three women of color currently represented in Statuary Hall.
