Locals Back From Italy To View Bethune Unveiling

    A group of Lake County Historical Society representatives and their families have returned from a trip to Italy, where they participated in the official unveiling of a statue of civil rights leader Mary McCleod Bethune. The marble statue will take residence in the US Capitol at Statuary Hall in the coming months, representing Florida and replacing the current statue or Civil War general Edmund Kirby Smith.
    While much of Bethune’s history is written in Volusia County, she does have links to Lake, beyond the number of residents who have attended the university named for her in Daytona Beach, Lake County also has been home to members of her National Council of Negro Women.
    “Her accomplishments have touched many lives in Lake County,” said Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker, who was among the delegation that attended the July 10 event in Pietrasanta, Italy.
    Her statuary recognition will touch Lake, also. A scale creation of the original, nearly 10-foot tall statue will be coming to Lake County’s Historical Museum in the future, part of a display that will include an estimated two-foot statue, information on Bethune, as well as tools used in the creation of the statue by artist Nilda Comas.
    The idea of having a miniature of the statue was part of a planned display that would have brought the existing Kirby Smith statue from Washington to Lake County. The museum had hoped to tell the larger story around the Civil War and Bethune’s civil rights work with the two statues, but the Lake County Commission earlier this year asked the state to find a different home for the Smith Statue, which is expected to reside in Tallahassee after its removal from Washington.
    However, plans for the smaller Bethune statue have proceeded, and it will be the only example of its kind in existence.
    The Lake County group, which included historical society president Ray Powers, Carey Baker - who is vice president of the group, society treasurer Andy Dubois, as well as board member Betsy Farner, were joined by family as part of a 54-person contingent that went to Italy for the unveiling. The rest of the group was made up Volusia County representatives.
    “It was really a great experience,” said Powers of the trip, which was highlighted by the July 10 unveiling. Musical performances, including a number of traditional Afro-American standards, were part of the ceremony.
    The trip also included visits to Comas’ studio, where the statue was created, and a trip to the marble mine where it’s block was sourced.
    “It was neat for us to see the studio where it was created, as well as to go to the marble cave,” said Baker, noting that the same cave was the source of the marble Michelangelo used in the creation of his ‘David’ statue.
    “They told us the marble they mined for the Bethune statue was the best they had seen in 35 years,” Baker said.
    The result is a striking image of Bethune, with the subject holding a carved black rose, a nod to Bethune’s penchant for calling her students ‘black roses’.
    The group returned to Lake County on July 16, with fresh energy for the project. However, it may be some time before Lake County’s Bethune display is fully realized. The statue isn’t set for installation in Washington until after the new year, and Powers said Lake County’s ceremonial activities won’t be held until national and Volusia County events have passed, and the scale statue, which hasn’t been carved yet, has arrived.