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May 9, 2024 For Immediate Release Contact: Taylor Haulsee
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, Speaker Johnson, joined by Congressional leadership, the Arkansas delegation, and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, hosted an unveiling ceremony for a new statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection. The statue, depicting Mrs. Daisy Lee Gatson Bates, will be displayed in Statuary Hall for decades to come. Mrs. Bates was a civil rights activist who mentored and protected the Little Rock Nine as they integrated Central High School in 1957. Read more about Mrs. Bates here.
Watch the Speaker’s remarks here
Read Speaker Johnson’s remarks below:
Well, we assured you this would be a great event and you’ve heard some great comments. I want to thank everyone again for being here today. I feel right at home. I’m from Shreveport, Louisiana, and I live in Benton, which is the far northwest corner of the state. And because of that as sometimes accused by the other members of the Louisiana delegation of being a South Arkansan, and I’m okay with that. I’m okay with it. It’s fine. Great people.
I just want to say very quickly to the HBCU alumni choir. We’ve been in a lot of ceremonies here, Hakeem, I don’t know if anybody’s ever made the acoustics of this hall sound that good. We were just about to have church in here, okay?
I want to give a special thanks to the Arkansas State Committee, Governor Sanders, Former Governor Hutchinson, and the Daisy Bates Home Museum Foundation Board for going through this lengthy process in making today possible, finally possible.
And of course, we want to thank Benjamin Victor. He is the sculptor of this magnificent statute.
And I know most of you haven’t been able to see the statue up close yet. But when you do, you’ll, you’ll admire a lot of things about it. One of the things I like, I noticed right off the the bat is you’ll notice a lot of the great citizens who are memorialized here have a grimace on their face. She’s got a big, beautiful smile. And you know what that is? That’s the facial expression of someone who is an overcomer. That’s what that says to me. That’s right.
Mrs. Bates was many things, and she did many things to move our country forward. And what another thing you’ll notice, we noticed earlier, is that the heel of her right shoe is lifted off the ground. And that’s to, I think, to symbolize she’s continuing. She, she advanced that move forward for the country. That’s something that’s really remarkable as well. Of course, she was a, certainly a storyteller and she was a, a journalist. And in the statue, you’ll also see her holding a copy of the Arkansas States press, and that’s the, the statewide paper that we’ve heard she created to tell the stories of Black Americans. Now by joining Statuary Hall, Mrs. Bates is now joining the Storybook of America. And as you know, that story begins with our nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence.
GK Chesterson was the famous British philosopher and statesman, and he said one time, famously, America is the only nation in the world that is founded upon a creed. And he said, the creed is listed with almost theological lucidity or clarity in the Declaration of Independence. We all know the creed well. We hold these truths to be self-evident.
When I’m talking to young people, students, groups, I sometimes say, wait, what is a self-evident truth? Something that’s obvious, right? We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and that they’re endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That among those the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There are some really important truths embedded in that creed. One of them is that we all know and believe that we are made in the image of that creator. We are made in God’s image. And because of that, it means that every single person has inestimable dignity and value. And your value is not related in any way to the color of your skin or what zip code you live in or where you went to school. Your value’s inherent ’cause it is given to you by your creator. And no one can take that away. That’s right.
So, throughout her years Daisy Gatson Bates helped America realize those universal truths that are set forth in our nation’s birth certificate. And she had a way of doing that, as we’ve heard. Sometimes she pulled out a gun, Hakeem, I didn’t know that part of the story, but you know, whatever’s required. One of her biographers noted that Mrs. Bates was often criticized for being pushy or ambitious or aggressive. But I think in hindsight, we all know that back in the 1950s, some people needed some pushing, right? They needed somebody with a little bit of ambition who is willing to push everyone in the right direction– from moderate bystanders to the most prejudiced people. And I like what the assistant principal of Central High said about her one time, he said, the devil himself could not have been more ab poured by the segregationist than Daisy Bates. Indeed, Mrs. Bates endured the cross burnings on her front yard, as we heard, and the death threats flying through her window. And she, she endured that because she was dedicated to the truth, that great truth that all of us are created equal. And she was remarkably brave. And she knew that what is popular isn’t always right, and what is right isn’t always popular, but if you do the right thing, eventually it’ll all catch up. And, and she did that. And because she did that, America is a more perfect union than it was when she began. I’m especially grateful because Mrs. Bates’s leadership had effects in my home state of Louisiana. Had Mrs. Bates not helped organize the Little Rock Nine and desegregate Central High, Ruby Bridges could not have walked into the William France Elementary School in New Orleans. But because Mrs. Bates organized those nine students, Ruby and minority boys and girls of Louisiana began to be treated equally in the eyes of the law as well. I do hope that you all appreciate where Mrs. Bates is situated. This is one room over from President Eisenhower. He sent the National Guard to Central High to protect the Little Rock Nine. In that same room is Dr. King and across from Mrs. Bates is Rosa Parks. And these three spoke at the March on Washington in 1963. And at that march, they fought for the right to vote and to live freely from blatant racial animus. Today, because Mrs. Bates held fast to her dream and used her life to force us to stare at the opening words of America’s story, all three of these great Americans are now honored with greatest esteem here in our nation’s capital. It really is hallowed ground. And this is an amazing feat, and it’s one that I’m sure they never expected, but they certainly, certainly deserve. So, we want to thank you all again for coming. Thank you to everybody who made this day possible. It is a time for great celebration. It truly is. So please stick around, take photos, and and help us celebrate the great legacy of Mrs. Bates. Thank you.
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