Gordon Parks Homecoming
1912 - 2006
![Gordon Parks Homecoming Monument [Side A] image. Click for full size.](Photos2/296/Photo296144.jpg?12222014105300PM "Gordon Parks Homecoming Monument [Side A]. Click for full size.")
This small town into which I was born, has, for me, grown into the largest, and most important city in the universe. For Scott is not as tall, or heralded as New York, Paris or London - or other places my feet have roamed, but it is home.
Surely, I remember the harsh days, the sordid bigotry and segregated schools - and indeed the graveyard for Black people, (where my beloved mother and father still rest beneath Kansas earth).
But recently, the bitterness, that hung around for so many years seems to have asked for silence, for escape from the weariness of those ugly days past. Thankfully hatred is suddenly remaining quiet, [k]eeping its mouth shut! And I'm thankful [f]or the contentment we lost along the way. My hope now is that each of us can find [w]hat God put us here to find - Love! Let us have no more truck with the devil!
Gordon Parks
UN Plaza, New York, NY
October 2, 2001
A Sign By The Road [Side B]
It stands at the edge of a Prairie town telling anyone, who cares, that I was born there. Perhaps the space left will say "Now he's buried here." Today a will-maker dropped by to tell me that time was weary and growing shorter and shorter; that nights for laughter and dancing are almost over. Perhaps a year, or more is patiently waiting. Beyond that winding road, Momma, Papa and sisters lay, assigned to graves that accommodate their Blackness. Night arrived loaded with buckets of tainted memories that had besieged my childhood with despair. No escape!
Troublesome reminders slammed me into a past where White doors frowned at me and White Schools shunned my presence. Fortunately some might fine things happened along the way for me, and that prairie town. Ups and downs have a way of contradicting the future. That sign, standing proudly on the road to Fort Scott, appears to be invisible to both malice and hatred. Crowned with mystery, racism seems to be wrinkling into solitude.
My doctor stretches my remaining years to 10! My bones hope he is right. But doctors, and will-makers can be wrong. I came into this world pronounced dead. Thankfully, God condemned that declaration. I survived. The end predicted for me, fell into a hole and died. So now I don't sit around waiting, day by day -- for death to call my name again.
Gordon Parks - March 2005
Erected 2007
this page online
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Civil Rights. In addition, it is included in the Fort Scott, Kansas series list. A significant historical month for this entry is March 2005.
Location. 37° 47.813′ N, 94° 43.005′ W. Marker is near Fort Scott, Kansas, in Bourbon County. It can be reached from Ironstone Drive. Monument is in Section 7 of Evergreen Cemetery. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 914 215th Street, Fort Scott KS 66701, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Eastern Kansas and specifically in Bleeding Kansas Border War Country. It is also in the American Midwest, in the Corn Belt, on the prairies, and on the Southern Plains. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Louisiana Purchase.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow
![Gordon Parks Homecoming Monument [Side B] image. Click for full size.](Photos2/296/Photo296145.jpg?12222014105700PM "Gordon Parks Homecoming Monument [Side B]. Click for full size.")
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker.
Also see . . .
1. Gordon Parks Biography. (Submitted on December 22, 2014, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
2. The Gordon Parks Museum at Fort Scott Community College. (Submitted on December 22, 2014, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
3. Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott. (Submitted on December 22, 2014, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
4. Gordon Parks at Kansapedia. (Submitted on December 22, 2014, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
Credits. This page was last revised on January 17, 2019. It was originally submitted on December 22, 2014, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio. This page has been viewed 759 times since then and 32 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on December 22, 2014, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
