Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, January 17, 2014
(STATEHOUSE) - Indiana has added two pioneering African-American legislators to the collection of busts which dot the statehouse.
Seventh District Congressman Andre Carson performed the formal unveiling of a bronze bust of his grandmother and congressional predecessor Julia Carson, at the state's annual Martin Luther King celebration in advance of Monday's holiday. The elder Carson and Gary's Katie Hall were the first African-American women elected to the Indiana Senate, in 1976.
Andre Carson says her true legacy isn't her political success, but her readiness to get things accomplished by working both with her Democratic allies and with Republicans.
He says it's the same attitude she displayed in all aspects of her life -- he recalls her opening her northside home to AIDS patients at a time when fear of the still-mysterious disease was running high.
The bust joins about a dozen other renderings of Hoosier legislators, governors and generals. Also added to the display: a bust of James Hinton, who became the first African-American in the General Assembly in 1880.
The legislature commissioned the two busts by sculptor Jon Hair last year.
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