On a Sunday in May 1978, about 500 black and white citizens of St. Louis stood together in Fountain Park – a neighborhood just north of the Central West End – to watch the unveiling of the region’s first statute of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The threat of rain didn’t stop the crowd from gathering and listening to the speakers’ words.
“The world is a better place to live because of Martin Luther King,” said Rev. Samuel Hylton, then pastor of the Centennial Baptist Church, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article dated May 8, 1978. “This is to help us remember his dream.” (Hylton passed last year at age 91.)
The 11-foot bronze statue was sculpted by the late Rudolph Torrini, who was then a professor of fine arts at Fontbonne College and who passed away at 95 in September.
In the statue, King stands with his right hand outstretched, as if giving an impassioned speech on civil rights or proclaiming the good news with a stirring sermon. His other hand clutches a book, perhaps the Bible or a book on the U.S. Constitution declaring the equality of men.
Paid for with a $43,000 block grant from Community Development Agency, the statue was intended as the first step towards the rebirth of the neighborhood.
Forty years later, the statute – like the Fountain Park neighborhood surrounding it – was in disrepair. This past summer, leaders of the Centennial Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., along with 18th Ward Alderman Terry Kennedy and neighbors, had the statue restored.
Its cracks were mended, and the bronze was cleaned and polished.
Now at 10 a.m. on Saturday, January 19, the restored statue, which is adjacent to 4950 Fountain Ave., will be the centerpiece of a MLK observance event, “Living the Dream – Dismantling Injustices in Community, Education, & Literacy.”
Fountain Park’s monument remains the only statue of a civil rights leader in the state.
“The reason we make such a big deal about the statue is because we don’t have another in the area,” said Rev. Derrick L. Perkins, servant and pastor of Centennial Christian Church. “We are trying to make sure that particular statue remains and looks well in honor of who he was. It’s a symbol. We have many symbols in our city, but we think that is one of hope and one that can across racial lines and sociopolitical lines.”
This will be the second year that the MLK event will be held by the statue. There will be a brief service with speakers from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the surrounding community and state and local political representatives. The Jennings Warrior Marching Band will lead the gathering in a one-mile march to promote peace and unity in the Fountain Park and Lewis Place neighborhoods. Then at Centennial Christian Church, light refreshments will be offered before the panel discussion on education and literacy begins.
The panelists include Chasidy Allen, assistant branch manager at the St. Louis County Library; Julius Anthony, founder and president at St. Louis Black Authors of Children’s Literature; Gwendolyn Diggs, assistant superintendent Jennings School District; Rochelle Jones of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and Rev. Dr. Jeff Moore of Webster Groves Christian Church. Rev. Dr. Leonard C. McKinnis II, assistant professor of systemic theology and African–American religions at Saint Louis University, will moderate.
“We have a pretty diverse group that will approach the idea of justice and education,” Perkins said. “We encourage people to assist us in promoting the idea of a beloved community. We are all one people, and we have to figure out how to struggle with that until we become that.”
At the unveiling ceremony in 1978, one of the most warmly received speakers was an 11-year-old boy, Fredrick Anderson, a student at Washington School, according to the Post-Dispatch. Frederick was the winner of an essay contest answering why he would like to unveil the statue.
“Dr. King was a great leader of our society, and contributed most of his time and effort trying to make our schools and lives better,” Fredrick read from his essay.
“He went to jail and served many days and months for our freedom. What did we do? We just sat there and watched, not lifting a hand to help him.”
Fredrick then helped local leaders pull the cover from the statue.
The actual making of the statue is an interesting story. The statue was delayed for seven months from the expected unveiling date, which the Post-Dispatch called a “comedy of errors.”
The original plan had called for it to be installed in September 1977. But when Torrini went to Florence, where he had his sculptures cast, he didn’t take into account the fact that many Italians take the entire month of August as a holiday. That led to the first month of delay.
Then the two foundry workers assigned to the statue came down with an illness unique to their profession – the black lung disease for bronze workers. They recovered just in time to get caught up in a foundry workers’ strike.
“Finally, just when everything was going well, and the statue was almost completed,” the Post-Dispatch reported, “the master artisan who was to put on the finishing touches suffered from a stroke.”
Eventually it was completed, but then more problems arose when it was being prepared for delivery to St. Louis. The Italian government misplaced the statue while examining it immediately before shipment. It turned up later in a government warehouse.
“When it came time for Torrini to say a few words at the unveiling ceremony Sunday,” the Post-Dispatch reported, “he smiled and said, ‘I want to apologize, too, for the slow boat.’”
For more information about the event, contact Centennial Church at 314-367-1818.
