Asked earlier, do you think she could have imagined this day . And dr. Janetta cole said sure, she could imagine this day, but she would probably imagine it for someone else. But then dr. Black said, but she would claim it because she knew to claim it. So we really want to take a moment to just say how incredible it is that we are here to celebrate the fact that a woman whose parents were enslaved has replaced a confederate general in the National Statuary hall. [applause] you know, we all get so frustrated and think, oh my goodness, is there any progress ever to be made . And today gives us a sense of hope and a sense of promise. Included in this audience are the people who provide hope and promise. There are students from bassoon cookman from Bethune Cookman university. [applause] i see our sisters from the National Council of negro women. [applause] and i especially want to introduce to you the John Robert Lewis scholars who are here. They had just started. [applause] and they are determined to carry on the mission. We also have people from the fdr library, and today we are going to learn about the important relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt, and thank you very much for being partners. [applause] i am the president of the United States capital Historical Society. We were chartered by congress and charged with telling the story of the capital and the people who work in the capitol in a manner that inspires informed patriotism. No one better inspired informed patriotism then Mary Mcleod Bethune. We know that the nation that our founders created has never been perfect, but that the creed from which our values derive is that we hold these truths to be so evident that all men, and i would add women, are created. There are few who embody that work more than Mary Mcleod Bethune. Today we want to be especially grateful to nancy loman, who led the statuary hall board, which worked on raising the funds. Thank you so much. [applause] she will be with us at some point. And the artist who created the statue. [applause] let me just tell you about congress, if any of you all havent dealt with this before. They have these things called votes, so they keep taking them away from whatever they had planned to do. At some point during this day, we are going to hear from majority whip james clyburn, who in this whole operation, i am going to tell you, mr. Clyburn said yes to the statue, but i want everybody to remember that Mary Mcleod Bethune is from South Carolina. [applause] the other congressperson we hope will join us at some point is congresswoman kathy castor. Congresswoman kathy castor there is nancy loman. I just said nice things about you. Good time to wave. Come on up, young lady. We have a seat for you. Congresswoman kathy castor has been working on getting this statue for six years, so her staff has been involved in every detail. So we are going to hear from those two when they come. We are just going to work with that. Oh, there is congresswoman castor. Im saying nice things about you. Come up here. I am just telling people that we cant quite figure out who is here and who is not here. Congresswoman, come on up. As congresswoman castor comes up, i want you to know that this woman put the entire resources of her staff, all of her personal Political Capital into making this happen, and she has been involved in every detail, so this is a celebration of your work. Congresswoman. [applause] rep. Castor good afternoon, friends. Lets stand up and cheer on the fact that after Mary Mcleod Bethune is representing the state of florida and all people in the capitol today. [applause] hallelujah. And amen. You all are a sight for sore eyes. The capitol really just opened up to visitors because of the pandemic and the violent insurrection, where they traipsed the Confederate Flag through the rotunda and statuary hall where we unveiled the statue. What a beautiful answer it is to that fact. But thank you, James Campbell and sam holliday in the u. S. Capitol Historical Society for allowing us all to come together and celebrate this day and talk about dr. Bethune and her legacy. I am going to talk a little bit about the process of the statue so that you all know, and i know congressman clyburn will be here soon as well. But there is another connection between florida and the statue and South Carolina. How many are here if you are from the state of florida, stand up. Lets see you. I love it. [applause] right over here, former state representative ed lorraine, i would like you to remain standing. [applause] stay standing until i get to your pivotal moment, ok . Here is the connection. Jane, you were right. This has been a labor of love for mine for some time. I was sworn in in 2007. As you come into the congress and you hear about the statues that represent every state, you take School Groups and friends from home through the capitol, and they say who are floridas two statures here . Well, i say it is john gorey, inventor of air conditioning. [applause] and who is the other . It is this obscure confederate general who barely lived in the state of florida. He was the last confederate general to surrender to the union army, and he fled to mexico. I thought, oh no, no. Not the big, beautiful, diverse, dynamic state of florida. We deserve a Great American to represent us. But it was not until that horrendous, horrific shooting in mother emanuel ame in charleston, South Carolina that states and communities began to reexamine their symbols, their statues, that we finally saw an opportunity to go to the Florida Legislature and ask, because it has to come from a state to replace a statue. You cant do it as an act of congress. So we sent a letter. I led the florida delegation. We had a bipartisan letter from the florida delegation to the speaker of the house in florida and the Senate President area at that time, the speaker of the house was steve from brevard county. He tapped state representative edna rain from tampa to lead the effort and sponsor the bill to get this done. Is state senator Perry Thurston in the house . Well, on the senate side in florida, Perry Thurston, who many of you know, was our lead in the state senate. And it took a couple of sessions of the state legislature because they thought other great floridians could also be considered. Marjory Stoneman Douglas was considered. The founder of publix, george jenkins, was considered. Everybody loves publix, but all right. What they did is eventually they passed one bill that said lets go examine who the great floridians are. Then the department of state had a committee called the great floridians committee, and the Florida Council on arts and culture were involved. Is shandy shaughnessy here . She was in the unveiling today. She was critical in making this happen. But they did online survey, and thank you, wildcats, because you know about the online survey. [applause] in my good friend, the famous historian from tampa on womens history Doris Weatherford was involved. His doris here . There she is. Doris weatherford. [applause] doris helped organize historians from across the state of florida to weighin on this online survey. Here is the good news. Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune was by far and away number one choice for floridians in that online survey. You know who was number two . James weldon johnson. How about that . And then i think it fell way off after that, so it was very clear to the Florida Legislature at that time, it wouldve been very difficult for them to go back and do something different, and at that point, the legislature went ahead and passed the bill. It was signed by the governor, and the architect of the capitol begin the process. We will be over at the library of congress tonight because after the department of state did their selection of the great sculptor from Fort Lauderdale and italy, she got right to work and came here to the capitol, and we toured her around to look at all of the statues. By the way, did you all have a chance to look at some of the other statues today . What is one of the differences between the older gentlemen that they have . Did we notice they are a little grumpy, a little cranky . And here is dr. Bethune with this optimistic smile. That she captured in such a beautiful fashion. Dr. Sybil moses was the lead at the library of congress. How perfect is that that dr. Moses could lead us to the Promised Land of getting this sculpture and informing the work. She put out historical recordings and photographs. We went down to lincoln park where that beautiful statue by the National Council of new grow women, National Council of negro women worked so hard to do. She internalized it all and i know someone dr. Beth thune would appreciate, someone who knew how to write letters, new how to ask for contributions, knew how to rally Daytona Beach and ormond beach and the state of florida and the bit thune cookman Bethune Cookman archive took on the project along with bob lloyd. If you are an alumni, would you stand up . We want to see you. [cheers and applause] i think all of the hbcus came to our crowd today but you all where the foundation of funding the Statuary Fund project with Tyrone Powell and lawrence drake. Thank you for what you have done. This was a labor of love and i want to thank my partner, congressman jim clyburn who was there all the way to say, this is right. I really appreciated your words at the unveiling ceremony where you said because lets face it, we are in a moment of time they want to rewrite history. I appreciated that you said you cannot rewrite history and you shouldnt even try. [applause] and we are not going to. We are going to celebrate this great educator. Thank you, jim clyburn, for being an inspiration. Chairman, if you know her and youd see her somewhere you see her somewhere on the january 6 committee, she was helpful in keeping us on track. The curator and others were instrumental in the early days and helping her understand what it means to have a symbol of greatness in the United States capitol and statuary hall. Speaker pelosi as well. I love the idea that it is kind of a girl power moment, no offense, mr. Webb. To have a female artist, the female head of the Statuary Fund and a female speaker today, i think dr. Bethune would love that. But all of her staff, and jim and Ashley Wilson and to team caster and my chief of staff, you all may not know clay but he helped get this done there he is. [applause] he doesnt want to be pointed out. But i havent had an opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of those people who helped us along the way. Dr. Whitaker, thank you for being an inspiration to me. I cannot wait for folks to hear your thoughtful message about stability so needed in this world today. Thank you all very much for being a part of the celebration. Thank you, jane, and the u. S. Capitol Historical Society. God bless you all. [applause] now you know when we say she got it done. Congratulations. Mr. Clyburn. This is a person who you just dont dare interview because everybody has a story about mr. Clyburn. Everybody will tell you so i will just say, what did president obama say about you . There is one person who when he speaks the entire congress listens. So let me present to you majority whip james clyburn. [cheers and applause] mr. Clyburn thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very, very much. You talked about girl power. I want to thank florida, the state of florida for kickstarting something new. What we are doing today, someone i grew up with almost every day, my mother was a beautician. And Mary Mcleod Bethune as you know today, the group she was a part of, colored women and girls club, she thought was a bit docile. And she wanted a little more activism. And so she went out to create now the National Council of negro women. And to do so, she didnt go on to college campuses. She started out organizing beauticians. And my mom was so enamored with that, and she grew up believing the two greatest women in the world where Mary Mcleod Bethune and madam cj walker. And but for multiple myeloma, which took her away at the age of 55, when she passed away, she had two beauty shops and 18 operators. Because she was determined to be like Mary Mcleod Bethune and madam cj walker. So i grew up with this lady. The biggest picture you see in my whipped office is of Mary Mcleod Bethune. The image you see behind me usually when im doing tv from my whipped office, you see wb devoid is, mary mcleod bit thune Mary Mcleod Bethune and thurgood marshall. Theres a statue i have to explain sometimes called i am a man. Some of you may remember that statue grew out of a protest in memphis, tennessee that led to the death of Martin Luther king jr. I spend all of my time trying to do what i can to make sure that we preserve history. I dont want to whitewash history. I dont want to revise history. I want us to learn from history and do what said to us if we fail to learn the lessons of history you are bound to repeat them and you cannot learn history lessons by dealing in false representations of history. It has to be what it is. And so what the state of florida has done is kick started something because after they made this move, she is so proud of it, she talks about it all the time, stops me on the floor with an update. With this when the state of virginia decided it would not be outdone, the state of virginia voted to take the statue of robert e. Lee out of this building and put in Barbara Johns who at 15 years old, started a movement that led to what we now as brown versus board of education of topeka kansas. And then virginia started something in arkansas and those of us who are old enough to remember, little rock nine. Supervised by desi bates in arkansas is going to put the statue of desi bates here in this building. [applause] now ive got to start a movement. See if we can get an africanamerican man to join these africanamerican women. [laughter] but let me thank all of you, thank you so much. I know hes going to be introduced but i want to thank bill daley. We got to know each other when he was in the administration of bill clinton and when he became chief of staff, i dont know why he called me one day and asked would i sit down with him, i had no idea what he wanted. I went to his office and sat down. He didnt want anything. He just sat down to talk and started the relationship. And when we decided that on her way to washington, Mary Mcleod Bethune should stop in maysville, South Carolina, and they told me how much it would cost, i remember the conversations i had with bill daley and i said, i want to talk to you about something and wells fargo underwrote the cause to bring her back to maysville, South Carolina. [applause] and her greatniece is here somewhere. Where is she . Mary Mcleod Bethunes niece was at the unveiling. They did not know about this, probably running around this building trying to find her, this auditorium. But she is now the mayor of maysville, South Carolina. She and her husband are here. [laughter] [applause] this is the kind of thing that makes me enjoy history so much. I will close with this. I was asked a couple of days ago what it was like, because it was announced last week that the naacp highest award will be awarded next wednesday night to yours truly. [applause] thank you. About award was first given that award was first given in 1918 to Ernest Everett just, one of the Foundation Founders of omega scifi fraternity Psi Phi Fraternity and a native of South Carolina. When i was asked what did it feel like to be getting that award, i said, it feels like one of my founders Ernest Everett justin made cloud for made room for Mary Mcleod Bethune and most important getting that award that was given to her, thats what i feel like with this award. Thank you so much. [applause] mr. Clyburn, you are an inspiration. Day after day. You know, as they say, we have a word from our sponsor. We are here we couldnt be here if we didnt have someone who is willing to invest in this work. Bill daley has been the chief of staff to the president s, has been in the president s cabinet, has been on major boards, has been a big hotshot. And he at every moment has decided that hes going to use his power and his authority to invest inequality and to invest in making sure invest in equality and to i