Trump announces Kobe Bryant, Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson statues for National Garden of American Heroes
President Donald Trump hosts a reception honoring Black History Month at the White House.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the National Garden of American Heroes will be getting statues of American sports legends.
During a Black History Month ceremony at the White House, Trump revealed that late NBA star Kobe Bryant, late boxing star Muhammad Ali and late civil rights icon and MLB pioneer Jackie Robinson will all be represented with statues in the garden.
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Late MLB icon Jackie Robinson (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In addition to the legendary athletes getting statues, Trump announced multiple civil rights leaders in other fields, including Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Coretta Scott King and Frederick Douglass, will also get statues.
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Muhammad Ali trains on the heavy bag at the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach during his training for his world heavyweight title bout. (Larry Spitzer/The Courier-Journal-USA TODAY Sports)
The National Garden of American Heroes was unveiled by Trump in 2020 and is dedicated to celebrating heroic figures in American history.
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Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers adjusts his jersey during the NBA game against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center on February 19, 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns defeated the Lakers 102-90. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Located on the grounds of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the garden is designed to celebrate heroes from all walks of life, with statues, busts, and plaques commemorating their immense contributions to the country.
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Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.
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The National Garden of American Heroes was unveiled by Trump in 2020
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Trump touts American Heroes garden that would honor Catholic figures including Kobe Bryant
By Jonah McKeown
CNA Staff, Feb 21, 2025 / 15:30 pm
Statues of dozens of prominent American Catholics — including numerous saints and popular figures such as the late basketball star Kobe Bryant — will be among those included in a proposed “National Garden of American Heroes,” a project President Donald Trump unveiled during his first term and revived following his inauguration last month.
During a Black History Month gathering at the White House on Thursday, Trump promised to honor a number of African American figures in the proposed garden, the final site for which is being picked “now,” he said. Trump said the garden will “honor hundreds of our greatest Americans to ever live.”
The list of honorees, first announced during Trump’s previous term, includes several Catholic saints: St. Junípero Serra, St. John Neumann, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, as well as several Catholics whose sainthood causes are ongoing: Venerable Fulton Sheen, Venerable Augustus Tolton, and Servant of God Dorothy Day.
Also included is the popular spiritual writer Father Thomas Merton; March for Life founder Nellie Gray; and John P. Washington, a Catholic priest and one of the “Four Chaplains” — a band of men of different faiths who all sacrificed their lives to save others on a torpedoed ship during World War II.
Political figures on the list include John F. Kennedy, the nation’s first Catholic president; Antonin Scalia, a longtime Supreme Court justice; 20th-century playwright and Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce; William F. Buckley Jr., conservative commentator and writer; and Archbishop John Carroll, SJ, the first Catholic archbishop in the United States, and his cousin Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.
In the world of popular culture and sports, the list includes Catholics such as film director Frank Capra, who directed “It’s a Wonderful Life”; wild west entertainer William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody; football coach Vince Lombardi; “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek; and Bryant, who died in a January 2020 helicopter crash in Southern California along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven other people.
Trump’s original order, issued Jan. 18, 2021, in the very last days of his previous term, outlined plans for building the National Garden of American Heroes. Building upon a previous order to establish a statuary park that honors figures throughout American history who embody the “American spirit,” the order expressed concern over what it describes as “anti-American extremism” seeking to dismantle the country’s history.
The plan for the garden aims to counteract this by creating a space where citizens can “renew their vision of greatness” through the stories and statues of selected American heroes, the order said. President Joe Biden nixed Trump’s original order shortly after he took office, canceling the project.
Trump revived the garden plan on Jan. 29, directing that the assistant to the president for domestic policy shall “recommend to the president additional historically significant Americans for inclusion in the National Garden of American Heroes, to bring the total number of heroes to 250.”
While the place where these new statues will be is yet to be determined, there are already a number of existing statues honoring Catholics with important roles in American history located in Washington, D.C. Most notably, the U.S. Capitol’s statuary hall includes images of St. Damien of Molokai, Mother Mary Joseph Pariseau, Father Jaques Marquette, and Serra, among others.
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July 1 is the feast day of St. Junípero Serra, the 18th-century Spanish Franciscan priest who brought Catholicism to California.
The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, begins its yearlong celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of her canonization.
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in New York honors the life of St. Kateri and the history of the local Indigenous people.
CNA is a service of EWTN News, Inc.
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Trump vows to add Black icons to proposed National Garden of American Heroes
President Trump shared plans to feature more than 10 Black historical figures in his proposed National Garden of American Heroes during a Thursday White House reception for Black History Month.
“We’re picking the final sites now. It’s between various states that want it very badly. We’ll honor hundreds of our greatest Americans to ever live, including countless Black American icons,” Trump said before a crowd of guests packed in the East Room.
“The garden will predominantly feature incredible women like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin and Coretta Scott King,” he said to the sound of applause.
Last month, the president amended his original executive order outlining developments for the National Garden of American Heroes to strike the goal of completing the site “prior to the 250th anniversary of the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026,” instead urging it be finished “as expeditiously as possible.”
He noted Black men would also be honored with sculptures.
“We’re going to produce some of the most beautiful works of art in the form of a statue for men like Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson — what a great athlete he was. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali,” Trump said.
“And the late Kobe Bryant.”
The large group includes Civil Rights activists, world-renowned singers and athletes who broke barriers in sports during the age of segregation.
“The National Garden will be built to reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism. It will be a place where citizens, young and old, can renew their vision of greatness and take up the challenge that I gave every American in my first address to Congress, to ‘[b]elieve in yourselves, believe in your future, and believe, once more, in America,’” the president described in his 2021 executive order.
Bryant, a decorated NBA and Olympic champion, is the most recently deceased person to be set for recognition at the site.
“During Black History Month, we pay tribute to these heroes and to so many others, but not simply because they’re Black heroes, but also because they are truly American heroes who inspire all of us, very much so,” Trump declared at the Thursday event attended by professional golfer Tiger Woods, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R), among others.
His comments come in the wake of recent controversy over a series of executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion measures in the federal workforce, public education and military.
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