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Well, the bridge is representative of a lot of things to a lot of people really sort of the most iconic public place that we have.

To a lot of people in the black community before we see it as anything else, it is something that we have to sort of have to recognize some of the atrocities that occurred there.

The bridge is not simply a place to walk.

It's not just a place for great photos or to get an exceptional view of the city.

In truth, it's been a place of torture, of human violation and human destruction.

In our case with Ed Johnson on the bridge, if that was a place of his death, by all means, it should be a place of remembrance.

Well, Ed Johnson would have been one of those people that was lynched between 1875 and 1920.

We know that he was a stonemason.

We know that he worked also at a saloon in St Elmo.

In January of 1906, a woman by Nevada, Taylor, was sexually assaulted.

And one thing she expressed in the midst of this really tragic and traumatic event was that she didn't actually see her attacker.

So days after this, there was a ransom, a reward rather put up for this and the and the reward grew day after day.

Ed Johnson was was arrested.

In those days, you didn't have to be accused of much of anything you could have been accused of vagrancy or loitering.

Remember that you had at this time you had the black codes and so African-Americans could have faced a legal sitation for almost anything.

And so it was very what we would call today circumstantial evidence, if you can even call it evidence that was levied against Ed Johnson.

There were ten people, at least, who indicated that he was onsite at his job in St. Elmo at the time of this assault.

Based upon the record, based upon the evidence based upon the testimony, Ed Johnson was not the attacker.

So the community didn't actually get justice.

And so his father went to Noah Pardon, and essentially Noah Pardon went to Styles Hutchins and they decided to take on the case.

This particular trial is unique in the situation of circumstances because it was directly appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

And Justice Harlan provided a stay of execution.

This is a provocation to the southern order, the southern way to states rights.

And so it wasn't simply about Ed Johnson, Nevada Taylor, Ed Johnson's guilt or innocence, even a single community that that the men of the South were affronted by the Supreme Court overstepping their boundaries.

So the mob organized and ultimately broke into Ed Johnson's cell, put a rope around his neck, marched him down the street, walked him up to the Walnut street bridge.

They offered him an opportunity to confess of his sins.

And his final words were, God bless you all.

I'm an innocent man.

It was a story that African-American communities have never forgot.

all of the victims we never forget, but you did know the significance of of Ed Johnson.

And I think it really was a collaborative community effort.

To get this done, the right is wrong and to let the healing begin.

We only can we look forward to the opportunity this represents to work together as a city to embrace our historical legacy through public art.

This will require securing the right site.

Receiving approval for an inspiring proposal and raising the necessary funds.

The committee has done a ton of work over the past four years, really ongoing of having diverse groups come together.

Black and white community members talk about the story and understand the story and understand the the need for a memorial .

So we wanted something that people actually want to come in that didn't just serve shock value.

I think Jerome's vision of it just spoke to.

I wouldn't necessarily say the needs of this community, but the desire of this community.

What we hope that the memorial will represent going forward.

As an African-American male aware of the sociological injustices and as an artist who believes that the artistic voice has an important part to play.

I was just thrilled to be awarded the commission.

This process.

Thank you very much.

Memorials are certainly a long standing tradition in public art, really, since public art has been happening in the US.

But ultimately, the question is who deserves to be memorialized and.

And I think because.

Ed Johnson had something taken from him his life, and because he was a victim of southern law and he was a victim of American racism, that this act.

Is in part to reaffirm his humanity.

These three men Ed Johnson Noah pardon and styles Hutchins deserve to be acknowledged in our city, too in a in a significant way.

From the very beginning, I saw Ed Johnson walking symbolically, finally walking away from that travesty.

I think of them symbolically as courage, compassion and grace.

I see Ed Johnson as grace.

I see.

I Noah pardon as courage.

He's using the judicial system as his weapon to fight injustice and then style hutchins is compassion by virtue of him reaching for Ed Johnson's hand.

We're doing a site specific immersive public space.

So this becomes much more complicated than showing up with your sculptures and putting them on down.

There this is perhaps the most challenging with respect to procedure, these because of their irregular nature and going down the slope is more of the the artistry of the memorial carries through into this.

So once we started construction where it was no longer what's on that construction document, it is what these stones are telling me.

They want to know what and how they want to contribute.

There's been an interesting debate, what type of history should be taught?

Do we need to be selective and subjective and watered down?

What are most important elements of our history?

We have to do is lean to the better angels of our nature and as Lincoln said, and recognize that we have to learn from one another.

And that means the inclusion of different aspects of history as it actually happened.

I think that.

there are movements and we are in the midst of a movement that's not simply around better truth telling, but it's a it's about a generation, a new being responsive to new elements of the American story.

The first step you see in societies is they're trying to heal as they commit to the most truthful record about what happened the baseline, the very foundation of societal healing is the truth, it's the truth.

I live by the adage that all truth will out.

The Johnson story had been repressed and buried and, you know, but they don't go away, they don't cease to exist.

So eventually, all truth will out also will be the same gray stone.

That capsule.

Right.

I wouldn't want it to look as if it's a noticeable patch.

It just takes away from the spirit of the piece.

Every time you hear these stories, there's this anger that comes up and but then you want to set that aside or try to work through that to find some way of of moving forward.

And so here comes the Ed Johnson story, and he's right there as this unbelievable spokesperson.

And so this project was a way of of not just honoring that person, but, you know, having him teach me healing occurs when you tell the story, when you bring awareness to what happened at the bridge and when you also give an open space to where we can have meaningful dialog and discussion on how we can go forward and progress.

So that axial line references the flow of the river, and that's the stream of time.

So then, as that stream of time crosses out of the plaza, it becomes the stream of history.

There's three oval shaped.

Those will contain these abstract forms representing the other three individuals lynched in Chattanooga.

And the center, of course, is the central grouping.

Now, the story basically goes up to the Ed Johnson story, the accounting of it, but then we've got 115 years of basically no accounting for what happened to Ed Johnson spirit.

Well, yes.

And so the libation ceremony was to acknowledge that as a result of all of that, Ed Johnson became an ancestor.

And I say that in terms of our ancestors being there to guide us and to teach us and to help us along our path.

He became that as did Noah and styles, and so libation ceremony was to acknowledge and honor them in that way - that is called the cloud of witnesses.

You can tell this project is hugely important for Jerome, obviously, but he has almost like this spiritual connection to this work.

As far as I was concerned, you know, Johnson was spending a lot of time with me in my studio.

That poem that I wrote, we see Johnson walking.

I'm sitting at my desk one day, and all of a sudden these words just start coming and - we see Ed Johnson walking.

Restored and honored his footsteps resounding along the stream of time.

We see.

Gathered to honor his life.

There's a tremendous amount of value in grace, courage and compassion.

I think that the degree to which in terms of racial justice or injustice, we keep talking at each other and we keep going around this vicious cycles because we're not utilizing those virtues sufficiently.

So I'm I'm loath to say that Johnson is at rest and more to say that, he's appreciative of being honored for his teachings to finally be given voice.

This is a reaction to the defilement of Ed Johnson.

So this is choosing honor over shame.

And choosing truth.

Over silence.

And while memorials themselves don't equate to reconciliation, we as a community exist to promote reconciliation.

We have to have light, to correct darkness.

It's when you shed light on these things that you rid yourself of them.

And so the old people in the old church put it another way.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

And so we hopefully this will be the light bit shines for us.

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