It is now official. The city of Atlanta, Georgia is to have a new statue of its most famous son, Martin Luther King jr. by the end of 2019. And guess who has the honour of creating that statue? It’s none other than Jamaica’s own sculptor Basil Watson.
Watson was selected at the end of a lengthy process which began with a call at the beginning of 2018, from which he was one of three pre-selected to develop a presentation which he delivered in May. Word of his selection came in July but Watson had to contain his excitement and remain tight-lipped about the commission until the contractual arrangements were finally settled in mid-December.
When completed, the new statue will be a double life-sized creation of 12ft in height, cast in bronze and mounted on a 6ft pedestal. It will be located on Martin Luther King Jr Drive, downtown Atlanta near to CNN headquarters and the new Mercedes Benz Stadium, two popular Atlanta landmarks.
It is fitting that a Jamaican should be selected to create a statue of the famous Civil Rights martyr and Nobel laureate. On his much celebrated first visit to Jamaica in 1965, King said he never felt more at home anywhere in the world and declared “In Jamaica, I feel like a human being.” Few are aware of the fact that King returned to Jamaica two years later to seek the peace and seclusion of a country cottage near Ocho Rios, to give himself the freedom to think and complete the writing of a book later published under the title Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? This special affinity to Jamaica was reinforced by his widow Coretta Scott King, in December 1968 the same year of his assassination when she told an audience in Kingston that King “had a great affection for you as a people and was greatly inspired by your motto ‘Out of Many, One People’.”
Watson is not overwhelmed by the enormous weight of the expectations that will be placed on him by the city and people of Atlanta and says he feels totally up to the challenge. And well he should, having earlier in the year received an enthusiastic reception to the unveiling of his statue of the beloved Louise Bennett Coverley (miss Lou) by a discriminating Jamaican audience and later a nod of approval for his statue of Olympian Shelly Ann Fraser pryce.
The year 2018 has been a busy and productive one for Watson. In one of our first stories in June 2018, we featured Basil Watson and the creation of the Heroes Walk located in Emancipation Park in Kingston. Visit the link here to read that story.
Watson was back on our pages in September with the unveiling of the statue of Miss Lou in Gordon Town square, St Andrew. Here is the link to that story with images of the statue and highlights of the unveiling.
MISS LOU RETURNS TO GORDON TOWN
SCULPTOR BASIL WATSON, CREATOR OF EMANCIPATION PARK’S HEROES WALK
