We know this, and yet we didn't expect that a special panel assembled by the state government would recommend honoring Publix and its founder George Jenkins in a very special way in the U.S. Capitol building. That's right, Florida could send a statue of Jenkins to sit in Washington, D.C.
The National Statuary Hall houses two statues from each state, honoring their most historic and important citizens in the halls of the U.S. Capitol building.
One of Florida's two original choices was Confederate U.S. Army Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, an obscure general of an army that fought to keep slavery legal. Not exactly a good look. After the Charleston church shooting, Floridians decided it was time for Smith to be replaced with a more appropriate choice.
Today an ad hoc committee of the state's Great Floridians Program met to select the three finalists who should replace him. Here are your contestants:
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the famed environmental
activist and mother of the Everglades preservation movement. - Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator, Florida civil rights icon, and adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- George Jenkins, the Publix guy.
Douglas and Bethune have dominated the conversation since the beginning of the movement to replace Smith. Their finalist status is no surprise. Jenkins is really the only shocker on the shortlist.
By the way, the other Florida person honored in the Statuary Hall is John Gorrie, a doctor who invented an early form of air conditioning. So, yes, there's a chance Florida could end up paying homage to A/C and good supermarket subs in the U.S. Capitol. Talk about Publix and chill.
The state Legislature will have the final say, and the vote will, in all likelihood, come down to Douglas and Bethune. Either would become just the tenth woman honored in the hall.
