DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The marble statue of an American icon in Daytona Beach that will soon represent Florida in our nation's capital now has an unveiling date. 

According to the Mayor of Daytona Beach, the marble statue of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune will be unveiled in the U.S. Capitol on July 13.

Many here in Central Florida already got to see the masterpiece as it was displayed in Daytona Beach for two months. Bethune will be the first African American to represent any state in Statuary Hall.

Later this summer, a bronze replica of that statue will also be given a permanent home in Riverside Park

While Bethune helped Daytona Beach grow in to what it is today, her legacy is even more wide-reaching.

No one knows that better than Dr. Tasha Lucas Youmans, dean of libraries at Bethune-Cookman University. She makes sure every room in the American icon’s Daytona Beach home is perfectly preserved just like it was when she was alive.

“So the china on the table here was gifted to Dr. Bethune by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt," Youmans said.

Youmans said she learns new things daily about Bethune and the things she did to improve the lives of those around her. 

“It's become ever so important to me to preserve her legacy and make sure her story gets told to the masses,” Youmans said. ​

All around Bethune's home are reminders of her journey..

"Dr. Bethune was the 15th of 17 children and the first to be born free," explained Youmans.  "Just born a few years outside of freedom, can you imagine what people thought she would be during that time? Certainly her parents were sharecroppers and so I am sure that they wanted more for her life.”

Despite her humble beginnings, she founded Bethune-Cookman University, was instrumental in the women’s suffrage movement and was an adviser to four U.S. presidents, and founded the National Council of Negro Women, which still thrives today.

"Her story is so much bigger than Daytona Beach, and so it is very important that we have an opportunity to share her story throughout these United States," Youmans said.  

That opportunity is coming in the form of a statue, one Youmans got to help with by providing photos from the university's archives.

“This one, she has a little smirk, it's one of the pictures where she has a little smile on her face," Youmans said, showing the photos she selected. "We have very few pictures where Dr. Bethune had a smile. It was really nice what we had that opportunity to participate in conceptualizing the ideas for the statue."

After four years, those preserved pictures turned into a larger-than-life statue, which will soon head to Washington, D.C. It is something that Bethune’s granddaughter has waited a long time to see.

“It’s amazing — that rose is absolutely outstanding," said Dr. Evelyn Bethune. 

Bethune was only 3 years old when her grandmother passed. Now she can’t wait to see her represent the state of Florida in the U.S. Capitol.

Her statue replaces a statue of a Confederate general.  

"She has represented the whole country for quite some time, so I think it is overdue and we are very appreciative to the state of Florida because it took a lot to get this done," Bethune said. 

Her legacy of flesh and blood is now forever memorialized in stone.

“My grandmother believed that everything was divinely ordained," Bethune said. "This is definitely divinely ordained."

The statue was on display in Daytona Beach for the public to enjoy through Dec. 12. It then made a stop in Bethune’s hometown of Maysville, S.C., before heading to Statuary Hall.