Art in the Public Square

Grace, seven years old at the sculpture honoring Mayor Elizabeth Wilson. (Used with Grace’s permission)

June 27

In my post on June 15, I mentioned the monuments at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. There was a story about these monuments in the June 27 edition of the AJC. Dekalb County is in the process of accepting its monument from the memorial. You can read it here. 

We need more art, more monuments, sculptures/art which reflect who we are as a society. This artistic expression also comments on how we see our past. Let's remove the Confederate monuments that litter our country. We have an opportunity to look back on our history and reflect on that history with today's values. Remove the monuments put there to honor the confederacy and install monuments which reflect the struggles of the Jim Crow era. 

We have an excellent example of high art/sculpture in our town square that reflects who we are now.  There is a sculpture in the Decatur square honoring Mayor Elizabeth Wilson. She was the first African-American Mayor of Decatur. Her focus was on educating young people. 

Several years ago, I went on a field trip with my daughter's elementary school class to the square in Decatur. Mayor Wilson was there to tell the students about her time as mayor. The sculpture is of a spinning globe. Around the globe are children, girls, and boys of different races. This statue reflects Decatur's focus on children, the power of education, and diversity. 

The sculpture honoring Mayor Wilson's is about 200 feet from the confederate monument in the square. Hopefully, someday we can have a town square free from the confederacy. We can have more art which reflects who we are now and with a memorial that honors those killed during Jim Crow.