Statue of racist Mississippi ex-Gov. Bilbo stashed in closet

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The top administrator in the Mississippi House says he made the decision to put a statue of a racist former governor into storage. House clerk Andrew Ketchings spoke to reporters Wednesday, solving a mystery that created buzz at the state Capitol. People starting noticing recently that a statue of the late Gov. Theodore Bilbo had disappeared. It had been on display for decades — first in the center of the Capitol, and since the 1980s in a House committee room. It is now in a closet behind a Capitol elevator. Bilbo was governor in 1916-1920 and 1928-1932. He was in the U.S. Senate from 1935 until he died in 1947.