Seven Pillars

Seven Pillars. . Dr. Melvin Wright once said while agreeing to help build the Sculpture Bethel, located less than a mile west of this site, "The Black man was left out of the last hundred years of Jackson's history. We will not be left out of the next hundred!" He saw his own history tied irrevocably to a history that was larger than he, the storey of the African Americans' contribution to hte success of Jackson, Madison County. This is the meaning of the form of the sculpture: it is a series of conocentric circles radiating out from a central plateau atop which are seven boulders. Each boulder represents one of the seven individuals or groups that played a significant role in the gorwth, development, and success of Jackson, Madison County. These are the first citizens of many whose names will be added in the future as this sculpture and this community continues to grow and our history expands. The boulders are placed on the plateau requiring the visitor/viewer to lookup as a sign of respect and honor for those represented there. Around the base of the plateau are three radiating rings of trees representing the youth of Jackson, Madison County. It is imperative that our youth know about the great individuals who have paved the way for them to have the opportunities they now enjoy. Individuals who got up every day determined to live their lives with meaning and purpose, never for recognition but because that is the way great cultures and communities are built and maintained , each one agreeing to live teir lives in service to their faith, their family, their neighbor, and their community in Jackson, Tennessee. I once heard Representative Johnnie Turner, who was active in the civil rights struggles of the '60s and '70s, say that when she relates her story to the youth today some say, "I wouldn't take that!" to which she replies, "You don't have to because I already did!" Those stories are what our youth need to hear, stories of men and women living the hardships that "let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground became a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley" so that today all of us would continue to strive for equality and reconciliation. Dedicated to the propositiono that all men are created equal.