DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The long-awaited statue of Mary McLeod Bethune made its way into Daytona Beach Wednesday morning.
The actual unveiling of the statue will be on Monday, but crowds lined the streets to catch a glimpse of it coming in.
“This is a very historic moment. Mary Mcleod Bethune is our great grandmother so we are here to celebrate and to welcome her home,” Patricia Bethune-Pettus said.
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The statue carried securely in a shipping container, wound through the streets of Bethune-Cookman University, the school she founded to give black students a safe place to learn over 100 years ago.
“They brought her through what was initially the garbage dump and now look at what she has done,” Janice Wright-Walton said, another Bethune descendent.
The shipping container then rolled into the News Journal Center.
Sculptor Nilda Comas flew in from Italy to help unveil her historic piece of art in the U.S. She beat out thousands in a competition to make it.
“I really wanted this project and out of the ten finalists, I was the only one who could sculpt the marble and so there were nine men and myself as the finalists,” she said.
It’s made from what’s likely the last of the marble from Michelangelo’s cave near Tuscany. The statue was first unveiled in Italy back in July.
Its arrival in Daytona Beach is almost the end of the four-year project for the statue’s fundraising foundation.
“Four years not making the sculpture but the whole project. Since it was approved and then she was selected by the legislature,” Comas said.
It will be on display for five months at the News Journal Center where anyone in the public can visit it for free.
It will head to the U.S. Capitol to represent Florida in the Statuary Hall in January. The woman known for tenaciously fighting racism will replace the statue of a confederate general.
“She was such an outstanding person. The way she began her story and the way it is presently. It’s truly an honor,” Bethune-Pettus said.