Mississippi lawmakers again fail to replace statues of white supremacists in U.S. Capitol

When representatives of Alcorn State University, one of the oldest historically Black colleges in the state, came to the Capitol recently to recognize Hiram Revels’ importance in Mississippi history, members of the House of Representatives offered a round of applause during the presentation.

The special recognition came after the majority-GOP House unanimously passed a resolution honoring Revels, a Natchez resident, the first president of Alcorn State and the first Black person to sit as a member of Congress in Washington.

“In 1868, Revels became a delegate to the Mississippi State Republican Convention where he played a pivotal role in advocating for the rights of freedmen and ensuring their participation in the political process,” Democratic Rep. Gregory Hollaway of Hazelhurst said in his remarks about the groundbreaking figure.

Legislation pending in that same chamber could honor Revels more prominently. Yet, House leadership has declined to advance it out of a committee and will likely let it die, as they have for the past several years.

Rep. Robert Johnson III, the Democratic leader, authored a resolution to replace Mississippi’s two statues of Jefferson Davis and J.Z. George in the U.S Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection with statues of civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer and Revels.

Johnson told Mississippi Today he is open to other replacements or other proposal to replaces the statues.

House Rules Chairman Fred Shanks, who could advance the measure, told Mississippi Today last year he would consider legislation to replace the statues during the 2025 session, but he recently said he does not plan to address the issue this year.

“There hasn’t been a lot of talk about it,” Shanks said. “The big thing leadership is pushing this year is tax cuts.”

Each U.S. state is allowed to place two statues of people “illustrious for their historic renown” or “distinguished civil or military services,” after Congress passed a federal law in the mid-nineteenth century establishing the national collection.

Some Democratic House members who participated in the event honoring Revels noticed that the measures to install a statue of Revels in Washington have stalled during the session.

“It would speak volumes about our state racially and historically if we honored him with a statue in Washington,” Democratic Rep. Grace Bulter-Washington of Jackson said of Revels.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, a Republican from Pearl, also let two Senate measures that would have replaced the statues in the U.S. Capitol die in his committee.

Mississippi remains an outlier for its statues, even among other Southern states. The Magnolia State is currently the only state in the nation to honor two Confederate leaders in the National Statuary Hall Collection.

Several Southern states have replaced their original statues with more inclusive figures.

Alabama replaced a statue of Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a Confederate officer, with one of Helen Keller, a political activist and disability rights advocate.

Florida approved a measure to replace Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith with Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights activist and founder of a Florida university.

Arkansas replaced statues of Uriah Milton Rose, a Confederate sympathizer, and James Paul Clarke, a former U.S. senator, with statues of civil rights activist Daisy Bates and musician Johnny Cash.

But Mississippi, whose leaders often fret that the rest of the nation does not recognize the state for its many contributions to music, literature, and civil rights activism, continues to honor the legacy of people who fought to maintain slavery and white supremacy during their day.

Both Davis and George were leaders of the Confederacy, and their vivid racism is well documented.

Davis served in the U.S. House and Senate from Mississippi before becoming the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, which fought to preserve slavery. Davis later said in a speech to the Mississippi Legislature that if he had the chance to change his past actions about secession, he would not do anything differently.

George was a member of Mississippi’s Secession Convention in 1861, and he signed the secession ordinance that included these words: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.”

George served in the Confederate Army and was also the architect of the 1890 Constitution that sought to reestablish white supremacy in the state and disenfranchise Black citizens from voting or holding elected office.

Mississippi’s legislative leaders could easily replace the two statues, as many Southern states have done.
To change a statue, federal law requires a majority of lawmakers in both legislative chambers to vote to approve the replacement, and the state is required to pay for the costs of replacing the two statues.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.