Each of the 50 states is allowed to display two statues in the U.S. Capitol and today U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor called for replacing the statue of Confederate Gen. Kirby Smith, which has stood in Statuary Hall as a representation of Florida since 1922.

“Leaders such as Mary McLeod Bethune, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and many others have made more lasting and positive contributions to our great state,” U.S. Rep. Castor said. “Several states have recently revisited the historical representation of their statues in the Capitol and it is time for Florida to do the same.”

John Gorrie, the Apalachicola physician who in the 1840s pioneered ice manufacturing and air conditioning, is the other Florida statue in the U.S. Capitol.  It would be nearly a century before Gorrie’s scientific principles were widely accepted, but his research – especially air conditioning - was critical for Florida’s future and he is widely accepted and embraced.  

Kirby is not. Kirby was born in St. Augustine, but did not spend much time in Florida because he left the state as a child. He became a general in the Confederate Army, briefly fled the country after the war, and eventually settled as a professor at the University of the South in Tennessee.

“I call on all Floridians to consider great leaders, scientists, teachers, artists and more who reflect the essence of our great state and join the effort to select a statue for the U.S Capitol.  The time is now as a wave is sweeping the country to revisit symbols and representations that better reflect the accuracy of our nation’s history and a more inclusive legacy,” U.S. Rep. Castor said. “I urge the Florida Legislature and Governor to give this every consideration, focus on Florida’s historical leaders who have been a positive influence and turn the page on a terrible chapter in America’s history.”

U.S. Rep. Castor has been working with renowned historian Doris Weatherford and other Floridians on a statue replacement plan.