After years of delay, park honoring black North Carolinians to break ground this year
A park meant to honor the history, contributions and struggles of black North Carolinians is set to finally break ground in December.
One of the last hurdles was cleared Wednesday when the NC Historical Commission unanimously voted to approve the design and concept of the park.
Called North Carolina Freedom Park, it’s set to be located between the state legislature and the governor’s mansion at the intersection of Wilmington and Lane streets. It will be the first park dedicated to black North Carolinians at the state government complex.
“North Carolina Freedom Park is a unique, arresting and original project,” said Reginald Hildebrand, a board member of the North Carolina Freedom Project. “At its center, a striking and inspiring structure called the beacon of freedom. Our public art and our public spaces define who we are as a society. As a community. They proclaim what we believe, what we value and what we aspire to achieve. This will be especially true for Freedom Park.”
Hildebrand, Reginald Hodges and Michael Stevenson presented the updated concept to the state board Wednesday morning at the NC Museum of History.
The nonprofit, North Carolina Freedom Project, has raised about $4 million, which includes $1.5 million in the state’s yet-to-be-approved budget. The park was designed by the late architect Phil Freelon, who led the design team of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Freedom Park will feature concrete walls creating pathways that lead toward a tall “beacon of freedom” sculpture in the middle. The concrete walls will be tinted to mimic the red clay that is prevalent throughout the state and will include nearly 20 quotes from black North Carolinians. All the quotes reference freedom and represent different moments in national and state history.
Author Maya Angelou, historian John Hope Franklin and civil rights leaders Julius Chambers and Pauli Murray are some of the people who will be quoted at the park.
Construction will likely take a year, meaning the park should be open in early 2021.
Children on field trips make up a majority of visitors to the Capitol and General Assembly and the park will include supplemental information, including a website, for teachers who want to base lessons around the park.
“It will serve as a place of encouragement, instruction and inspiration for our children and for the people of the future who may face challenges we can’t even imagine today,” Hildebrand said. “Regardless of their background (and) whatever challenges they are facing, when they come to Freedom Park and look up at the beacon of freedom and read the words of black North Carolinians who struggled for freedom, they will begin to understand that heritage and to realize there are many inspiring examples for them to follow.”
The park was thrust into the spotlight after the Historical Commission decided against removing three Confederate statues on the Capitol grounds. There are no monuments to African Americans at the Capitol, though one is planned.
If it gets the money in the proposed state budget, the nonprofit will have raised about $4 million of its $5 million goal. It is still raising money to add a projector that will display related art on the wall of the nearby State Archives building and to move power lines underground.
More information about the park, including how to donate, is available at www.ncfmp.org.
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 5:49 PM.
