Minnesota legislators have set aside $325,000 to send a statue of one of its most-famous native sons, Hubert H. Humphrey, to National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The provision is part of a larger bonding bill lawmakers passed earlier this month. It also directs Gov. Tim Walz to ask the federal government to replace the existing statue of Henry Mower Rice, a fur trader and politician from Minnesota’s early days, with a Humphrey statue.
The potential swap was first publicly discussed last year. House DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, who spearheaded the effort, said the Rice statue has represented Minnesota in the U.S. Capitol since 1916.
“He’s had a good long run,” Long told the Minnesota Star Tribune on Monday. “We’ve had quite a lot of state history since then.”
Humphrey served as mayor of Minneapolis in the 1940s, vice president to Lyndon B. Johnson, and in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades where he championed civil rights and had a key role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Humphrey, a Democrat, also lost the 1968 presidential election to Republican Richard M. Nixon.
Long said Humphrey’s civil rights accomplishments motivated him to push for the change, which received bipartisan support at the Capitol.
The bill says the new statue will be a recast of the Humphrey statue that was installed on the Minnesota State Capitol mall in 2012. Long said the Rice statue will likely be displayed in Rice County, which was named after him.
“Talking to my county and the administrator there, they are excited to be able to get the statue of Henry Mower Rice back,” Rep. Keith Allen, R-Kenyon, said during a May debate.
