 | | Dr. Bethune was honored for her work championing education and civil rights, and became the first Black American to be represented with a statue in National Statuary Hall, a central room of the United States Capitol.Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times |
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Honoring Mary McLeod Bethune |
Mary McLeod Bethune on Wednesday became the first Black American to be represented with a state statue in National Statuary Hall, a central room of the United States Capitol, honored for her work championing education and civil rights. |
Bethune, whose statue replaces one of a Confederate general, became an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and an advocate for Black Americans from the schoolhouse to the White House. The school she founded with $1.50 eventually became Bethune-Cookman University, a historically Black university in Daytona Beach, Fla. |
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who hosted the dedication ceremony, called Bethune "the pride of Florida and America," and said it was "poetic" for her likeness to replace that of "a little-known Confederate general," Edmund Kirby Smith, who was among the last to surrender after the end of the Civil War in 1865. |
His statue was removed in 2021. Ms. Pelosi called it "trading a traitor for a civil rights hero." |
The House voted last year to remove statues honoring Confederate leaders and other white supremacists from display at the Capitol. That bill and others like it come amid a yearslong debate over the replacement of statues as well as names on buildings, streets and universities that memorialize racist figures. Critics say it is better to celebrate figures who contributed to the struggle for equal rights. |
There are many signs of Bethune's legacy at the university she led for 30 years, said Lawrence M. Drake II, the interim president of Bethune-Cookman University. She practiced experiential teaching as an educator, a philosophy that pairs activities with lesson material, he said. |
"Our hearts are rejoicing today seeing our founder and namesake take her rightful place among the most distinguished Americans," he said. |
The statue, carved in white marble from the same quarry as Michelangelo's David, depicts Bethune in graduation regalia and a cap with books. She is holding a black rose, which she once described as a symbol of acceptance of students' individuality. In her other hand, she holds a cane that was given to her by Roosevelt. |
The inscription is one of her best-known quotes: "Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it may be a diamond in the rough." |
The artist, Nilda Comas, is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is the first Hispanic sculptor to create a piece for the National Statuary Hall. Each state sends two statues of prominent citizens to represent it in Statuary Hall, an ornate, amphitheater-style room just off the House floor, or elsewhere in the Capitol. |
"We can't change history, but we can certainly make it clear that which we honor and that which we do not honor," Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, said last year. "Symbols of hate and division have no place in the halls of Congress." |
Statues can be replaced only with the approval of a state Legislature and governor. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican and a former governor of Florida, started the process of commemorating Bethune. |
Representative Val Demings, Democrat of Florida, said at the ceremony that her parents taught her about Bethune's legacy of public service. Ms. Demings, who was given an honorary doctorate from Bethune-Cookman University, said she still looked up to her. |
"Her labor of love could not be contained in her years on this earth," Ms. Demings said. "Her contributions will touch generations yet unborn. She was bold, courageous. And although her journey had its triumphs and its struggles, Dr. Mary Bethune never wavered." |
Read the rest of the story here. |
 | | Phoebe Robinson's new show, "Everything's Trash" debuts Wednesday on Freeform.Donavon Smallwood for The New York Times |
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Phoebe Robinson Is Trash, and She's Fine With It |
"Everyone is trash," Phoebe Robinson explained. "We all have our great qualities, but we also have flaws. Sometimes they're lovable. Sometimes they're not. And it's OK." |
This was a on a recent summer morning and Robinson — a writer and performer best-known for her essay collections and the podcast-turned-HBO-show "2 Dope Queens" — was sermonizing in between sips of lemonade at a coffee shop in Downtown Brooklyn. She had arrived a few minutes late. (Lateness, she would later explain, is one of her trashiest qualities.) Around the corner stood a blue Bigbelly garbage can ornamented with her image, an ad for her new show, "Everything's Trash," which debuts Wednesday on Freeform. Robinson stars as Phoebe, a podcast host facing down adulthood with pluck and hedonism while her very together older brother (Jordan Carlos) runs for state office. |
Robinson, 37, adapted the show from her 2018 collection, "Everything's Trash, But It's Okay." If creating, producing, writing for and starring in a show sounds like a lot of jobs, I should also note that this is the second show from Robinson's production company, Tiny Reparations; that she runs a publishing imprint of the same name; and that she recently published a third essay collection. She also debuted her first standup special, "Sorry, Harriet Tubman," last fall on HBO Max. Really, it's enough to make a person want to go back to bed. |
On this morning, she greeted the day in sequined sandals, pants that matched the lemonade and a crinkly black jacket. (A Hefty bag, but make it fashion.) Under that jacket was a cropped T from U2's "The Joshua Tree" tour. (Robinson is on record as loving U2 maybe more than anyone alive.) Over that lemonade, Robinson, exuberant and focused, discussed exploiting her young adulthood for laughs and whether she is still trash. Spoiler: "Of course I'm still trash!" she said. |
These are edited excerpts from the conversation. |
The book is based on the events and missteps of your late 20s and early 30s. How close does the show hew to your actual life? |
It's a healthy combination of writers' room and real life. My brother really is a state rep. But I would not hook up with his political rival. That's not my vibe. We wanted to have fun with it — the times when I was crazy broke and running around, hustling. The whole wear-and-return thing? I did that for years. I would get a cute outfit for an event. And then I would be like: "OK, no one spill on me. No one sweat. Because I'm going to return this later." We just mix it all up together. TV Phoebe is certainly messier than I ever was. She's smart and funny and lovable, but she operates with whatever feels good in the moment. I like to believe I'm a bit more mindful than that. She's just living her life. |
When I think of comedies about young women being trash, I think of "Girls" or "Broad City." Have Black women felt as free to be trash? |
We know that the answer is no. But there are a lot of great shows out there — "Insecure," "Abbott Elementary," hopefully my show — that show people just living their lives. I didn't create this show thinking about respectability politics. It wasn't even a topic of discussion. We really just wanted to make a show that was hilarious and honest, and based on stuff that's happened to the writers in the room. I will always fight for the right to be silly, to be messy, to make mistakes. I don't want us to get to a place where we aren't showing characters being human. |
Read the rest of the story here. |
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