TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Either the African-American woman who founded what's now Bethune-Cookman University, the founder of Publix supermarkets or the woman credited with saving the Everglades will replace a Confederate general's statue that represents Florida in the U.S. Capitol.
The three Floridians were selected Wednesday by a committee that reviewed 130 recommendations made by the public. The Legislature will now choose which of the three will replace the statue of Edmund Kirby Smith.
Mary McLeod Bethune was the unanimous choice of the four-member committee on its first vote. Publix founder George Washington Jenkins and "The Everglades: River of Grass" author Marjory Stoneman Douglas were the pick of two members.
No other person received more than one vote and the committee immediately agreed to accept the three without a second vote.
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