Lawmakers in both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature are working to rid of two Confederate statues that have represented the state in Congress for nearly a century, often offering Washington, D.C. tourists a gloomy perspective on the state’s progress in civil rights.
During the opening week of the session, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced bills that would either outright replace the statues of segregationists Jefferson Davis and James Z. George inside the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall or create a commission to offer a pair of alternatives “who bring honor to all Mississippians and reflect the demographics of the state as a whole.”
The above excerpt comes from Sen. David Blount’s bill to create the National Statuary Hall Selection Commission to study, interact with and poll the public, and make recommendations for the selection of two new Mississippians to represent the state in National Statuary Hall’s collection. If approved by both chambers and signed by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, the commission will include nine members tasked with submitting a written proposal for replacements by Nov. 30, 2025.
The commission members would include three appointed by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, three appointed by House Speaker Jason White, and three appointed by Reeves. Reeves’ selections would be required to serve as representation from the Mississippi Economic Council, Mississippi Arts Commission, and the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
“The state of Mississippi has a rich heritage in art, literature, music, and history,” a portion of the bill’s text reads. “In the spirit of unity and for the sake of displaying to our nation historic figures who bring honor to all Mississippians, taking into account the demographics of the state as a whole, the Legislature seeks to reopen consideration of the figures whose statues are to represent the State of Mississippi in the National Statuary Hall Collection.”
Drawing from the categories of art, literature, music, and history brings so many possibilities as to who could be chosen to have a monument erected in their likeness inside the nation’s capitol building. The first names that come to mind when thinking about late Mississippians who had a tremendous impact on the world – B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Jimmy Buffett, Muddy Waters, James Earl Jones, and the list goes on and on.
And not to forget about civil rights icons – Mississippi has had a lot of impact there, too, with those like Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Vernon Dahmner, and many others serving pivotal roles in ensuring the same rights were granted and discrimination was lifted and continues to be lifted against African Americans. This is the point in the statue conversation that House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III is trying to capitalize on with his latest bill.
Instead of creating a commission to submit recommendations for new statues, Johnson has once again proposed the state go ahead and replace Davis and George with statues of Hamer and Hiram Revels, the first African American to serve in Congress when being elected out of Mississippi in 1870. To him, this would educate the rest of the country on the evolution race relations in Mississippi have seen in the aftermath of an ugly past.
“I certainly think the national narrative and the national perspective of Mississippi is way off,” Johnson said in an interview last week when the topic of race came up. “What we live is a whole lot different than what people perceive we are.”
If the Mississippi Legislature were to vote in favor of replacing the state’s two statues in National Statuary Hall, it would join other states such as Florida and Virginia to remove Confederate emblems from the collection. Last year, Arkansas installed a statue of civil rights journalist and activist Daisy Bates right next to Davis, the president of the Confederacy who called Mississippi home.
