Arkansas to fund statue of Black woman civil rights leader

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas officials plan to use a state grant to help fund the construction of a statue of civil rights leader Daisy Bates in the U.S. Capitol, instead of using that money for an easement at the site of a Confederate statue in downtown Little Rock.

Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are working on the agreement that would redirect money from a $100,000 grant the city obtained from the Department of Arkansas Heritage. The money was initially meant to restore the building that now houses the MacArthur Museum of Military History, which is where a Confederate soldier statue was located under a state easement, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday.

"Governor Hutchinson and I worked on a very amicable agreement that we will continue to work on," Scott said while updating city directors of the negotiations at a policy meeting Tuesday evening. "This is ... very notable and thoughtful from Governor Hutchinson to transition those dollars to the Daisy Bates statue that will be built in our nation's Capitol."

Scott last month ordered the statue to be removed from a downtown park in Little Rock amid protests against racism and police brutality in the city and across the nation that were catalyzed by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was handcuffed, died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes

Read more: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2020/jul/30/arkansas-fund-statue-black-woman-civil-rights-leader/836021/