Rosa Parks, Helen Keller statues could reach Alabama State Capitol in 2025

A working model for the Rosa Parks statue is presented at the Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission on Apr. 18, 2023, by artist Julia Knight. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)

Statues of Rosa Parks and Helen Keller could be erected on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol early next year, according to the Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commision.

Catie Marie Niolet, a Birmingham attorney who represents the commission, said at a Tuesday meeting that they were working with the Alabama Department of Finance and the Division of Construction Management to finalize the construction documents, which includes plans for soil testing, underground utilities and lighting design.

“The selected architects and construction team will work very closely with the artists to ensure that the appropriate irrigation is installed, the appropriate landscaping,” she said.

The Alabama Legislature in 2019 approved the installation of statues of Keller and Parks on the Alabama State Capitol grounds, the first women to be so honored. Parks’ arrest on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, considered the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Keller, a Tuscumbia native who lost her sight and hearing before her second birthday, became a world-renowned author and advocate for the rights of the disabled. 

The statues are expected to cost about $611,000, according to previous projections. The commission has raised about $700,000 for the statues. 

Julia Knight, a sculptor from Decatur, Georgia who designed the Parks statue, asked on Tuesday if there was a way that the Parks statue could be raised sometime between August and September. She said that she thought the foundation work for Parks would already have started.

Niolet said that she would work with the Division of Construction Management to determine if that is possible.

A part of the bench where the Helen Keller statue will sit as shown by sculptor Jay Warren on April 2, 2024.

The commission is also tasked with erecting a Keller statue on the Capitol grounds. The Keller statue will be to the left of the back entrance, facing the current Statehouse. That building is expected to be demolished after a new statehouse is completed sometime in the next three years and is expected to be replaced by green space.

Jay Warren, an Oregon-based sculptor who won the contract to design the Keller statue, said work has begun on the statue and that a part of the statue – a bench where the statue of Keller will sit – is scheduled to be complete by April 10. It will have her name cut into the stone, and it will be made of seven or eight sections, Warren said.

Warren has made a clay mold of Keller’s head and said he’s in the process of making one of her body, which will allow him to work on the fine details to “get a better likeness” of Keller, such as detailing her hair.

“That’s the start. I figure in the next couple of two to three weeks, I’ll have the whole figure here and will  be able to start working the whole thing together,” Warren said.

The post Rosa Parks, Helen Keller statues could reach Alabama State Capitol in 2025 appeared first on Alabama Reflector.