"Empathy": Statue of Civil Rights Icon John Lewis to be Unveiled Where a Confederate Monument Once Stood
The sculptor behind a new statue of the longtime Congressman explains the power that art can have in social justice
The unveiling of a new sculpture in DeKalb County, Georgia Saturday morning will mark an inflection point in American history.
For years, Georgians had rallied against a 30-foot Confederate monument that stood outside the County Courthouse in Decatur. Erected in 1908 by The United Daughters of the Confederacy, the granite obelisk was long-understood to glorify the “Lost Cause” of the Civil War, honor the soldiers who fought on the side of slavery, and intimidate Black Americans for generations.
The fight was drawn out through different eras of Civil Rights activism. Supporters of the monument said it was a piece of “cultural heritage” that should be left standing; opponents said it was built to intimidate and that its racism reverberated for more than 150 years after the Civil War ended.
In 2020, after a fight between local activists and legislators, a judge declared it was a “public nuisance” and it was torn down. A task-force was set up to decide what should go in its place.
It was clear almost immediately who should be honored in this square: John Lewis.
Lewis was a towering figure who had dedicated his life to serving the American people and eradicating racial injustices throughout the nation. Lewis was one of the original “freedom riders,” the non-violent activists calling out racial oppression and segregation. He was also one of the “big six” organizers of the March on Washington, and spoke on the same stage where Martin Luther King, Jr. would profess “I have a dream.” He led the Selma marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and was attacked by officers so badly his skull was fractured. And he would then go on to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District for more than 30 years, until his death of pancreatic cancer in 2020. When then-president Barack Obama gave Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in 2011, he said:
“Generations from now, when parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind -- an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time; whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now.”
The task force in DeKalb County came to an agreement. “John was a giant of a man, with a humble heart, he met no strangers and he truly was a man who loved the people and who loved his country, which he represented very well. He deserves this honor,” DeKalb County Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson said at the time.
For more than 100 years a racist tower, inscribed with words such as “a covenant keeping race” had loomed over the DeKalb County’s house of justice. Now, a memorial for a Black man, who promoted “Good Trouble” and dedicated his life to the American promise will stand in its place.