MMB 2021
Forty-seven years, 1974, after the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C., a second statue to Bethune was unveiled in Jersey City on November 20, 2021. Almost a year later, on an early Sunday morning, the first day of Spring, March 20, 2022, Linda and I drove to Jersey City to view the statue. Nine-feet-tall on a two-and-half- foot marble pedestal, the bronze statue is positioned at the entrance to the newly constructed $3.5 million Mary McLeod Bethune Park with an amphitheater/concert stage, playground, and more. The first statue in Jersey City to honor a Black woman the memorial was designed by Alvin Petit, an artist and the director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Center that is directly across the street. Petit's vision was of Bethune in her "late 20s to early 30s." Her head is "turned east to face the rising sun and protectively overlooking the Bethune Center facility." She is depicted clutching books to underscore her passion for education. According to a press release, "Her facial expression embodies both her nature of defiance and optimism."
