INDIANAPOLIS | It took more than a century to install a bust of Benjamin Harrison -- the only Hoosier to become president -- at the Indiana Capitol.

So state Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, is willing to wait another year for a permanent Statehouse tribute to the contributions African-American leaders have made to the Hoosier state.

Smith, who sponsored a 2007 law to commission the tribute, gladly obliged when a colleague added an amendment for the Harrison bust. The bronze likeness of the 23rd president was unveiled Tuesday afternoon, but the tribute to Indiana's black leaders still is at least a year away.

"I am not disappointed. I'm just concerned that the same progress was not made," Smith said after Tuesday's unveiling. "I had hoped that both of them would have been unveiled at the same time, since the bill covered both topics. But I'm not dismayed. I'm hopeful that by next year this time the other half will be a reality."

Elizabeth Lerch, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Administration, said a 12-month plan for commissioning the tribute to great black Hoosiers was forwarded to a legislative oversight panel in July. The plan calls for consulting with the Indiana Historical Bureau to select a broad group of honorees.

Smith said former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, one of the nation's first black mayors, should be included in the tribute. But the state's plan for the artwork stipulates that honorees be deceased for at least two decades. Hatcher, who was first elected in 1967, is alive and well.