| Continuing the Conversation | |
|---|---|
 Continuing the Conversation (2019) | |
| Artist | Martin Dawe |
| Completion date | April 5, 2018 |
| Medium | Bronze, granite |
| Subject | Rosa Parks |
| Location | Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
Continuing the Conversation is a public sculpture honoring Rosa Parks in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Located on the main campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), the artwork was created by Martin Dawe and unveiled in 2018.
The idea for a monument honoring Rosa Parks at Georgia Tech was first put forward by Atlanta sculptor Martin Dawe. Dawe proposed the idea after noting that Parks died 50 years after her actions sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, with the artwork to be unveiled the day after the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. [1] Coincidentally, Dawe had recently completed a public art piece of King, a statue of him at the Georgia State Capitol. [1] Dawe proposed an artwork featuring two sculptures of Parks, with one of her at age 42 (when her actions started the boycott) and the other of her at age 92 (the age at which she died), with an empty seat between the two. [2] The cost of the project was $300,000 and was covered by donations from two Georgia Tech alumni. [1] The sculptures of Parks were bronzed in Utah, [1] and the granite used the artwork came from Elberton, Georgia. [3] The statue was unveiled on April 5, 2018, in a small area of the campus known as Harrison Square, named after former Tech President Edwin Harrison, who had desegregated Tech during his tenure. [3] Attendees at the unveiling included relatives of Harrison, King, and Parks. [3]
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Claudette Colvin is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. This occurred nine months before the more widely known incident in which Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped spark the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.
Mary Louise Smith is an African-American civil rights activist. She was arrested in October 1955 at the age of 18 in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on the segregated bus system. She is one of several women who were arrested for this offense prior to Rosa Parks that year. Parks was the figure around whom the Montgomery bus boycott was organized, starting December 5, 1955.
The Georgia State Capitol is an architecturally and historically significant building in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The building has been named a National Historic Landmark which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As the primary office building of Georgia's government, the capitol houses the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state on the second floor, chambers in which the General Assembly, consisting of the Georgia State Senate and Georgia House of Representatives, meets annually from January to April. The fourth floor houses visitors' galleries overlooking the legislative chambers and a museum located near the rotunda in which a statue of Miss Freedom caps the dome.
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres (0.14 km2) and includes several sites in Atlanta, Georgia related to the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Within the park is his boyhood home, and Ebenezer Baptist Church — the church where King was baptized and both he and his father, Martin Luther King Sr., were pastors — as well as, the grave site of King, Jr., and his wife, civil rights activist Coretta Scott King.
Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956), was a case heard before a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on Montgomery and Alabama state bus segregation laws. The panel consisted of Middle District of Alabama Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Northern District of Alabama Judge Seybourn Harris Lynne, and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Rives. The main plaintiffs in the case were Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith. Jeanetta Reese had originally been a plaintiff in the case, but intimidation by segregationists caused her to withdraw in February. She falsely claimed she had not agreed to the lawsuit, which led to an unsuccessful attempt to disbar Fred Gray for supposedly improperly representing her.
Aurelia Shines Browder Coleman was an African-American civil rights activist in Montgomery, Alabama. In April 1955, almost eight months before the arrest of Rosa Parks and a month after the arrest of Claudette Colvin, she was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider.
Zenos Frudakis, known as Frudakis, is an American sculptor whose diverse body of work includes monuments, memorials, portrait busts and statues of living and historic individuals, military subjects, sports figures and animal sculpture. Over the past four decades he has sculpted monumental works and over 100 figurative sculptures included within public and private collections throughout the United States and internationally. Frudakis currently lives and works near Philadelphia, and is best known for his sculpture Freedom, which shows a series of figures breaking free from a wall and is installed in downtown Philadelphia. Other notable works are at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina, the National Academy of Design, and the Lotos Club of New York City, the Imperial War Museum in England, the Utsukushi ga-hara Open Air Museum in Japan, and the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa.
The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tactics, and accomplishments of the people who organized and participated in this nonviolent movement.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial, is a national memorial to commemorate the black victims of lynching in the United States. It is intended to focus on and acknowledge past racial terrorism and advocate for social justice in America. Founded by the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative, it opened in downtown Montgomery, Alabama on April 26, 2018.
This is a list of memorials to Martin Luther King Jr.
The Martin Luther King Jr. statue is a public monument of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia. The statue, designed by Martin Dawe, was unveiled in 2017 and stands on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol, overlooking Liberty Plaza.
The Three Pioneers is a public sculpture on the main campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Created by Martin Dawe, the statue honors the first three African American students at the institute, who enrolled in 1961.
The First Graduate is a bronze sculpture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Unveiled in 2019, the statue was designed by Martin Dawe and honors Ronald Yancey, the first African American student to graduate from the institute. The sculpture is located inside the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons.
Hope Moving Forward is a public monument in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Dedicated in 2021, the monument consists of a bronze statue of Martin Luther King Jr. designed by Basil Watson atop a pedestal. It is located at the intersection of Northside Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
There are two statues of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Newark, New Jersey. Both are located on the Essex County Courthouse Complex at its newest addition, the Martin Luther King Justice Building.
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