Public Art Past & Present aka Discovering the History of Brooklyn's Monument!

On October 6th, my professor organized a trip for my fellow classmates and me to explore one of Brooklyn's Most Historical monuments one of them is of which is by Hank Willis Thomas is called "Unity", the structure of the art itself is a bronze-copper-esc arm with the finger pointing up in the sky and to me what this signifies for me as equality and the society becoming one. Throughout the trip, one of the first things we observed was the monument dedicated to Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, located in Brooklyn, NY on Columbus Park right by Court street, The artist who created this sculpture is John Quincy Adams who as you know can see from the collage his name is happened to be engraved in the statue itself. Moreso prior to this I never knew much about who was Henry .W. Beecher or what he meant in history, especially him being a Brooklyn citizen though I had heard his name before in my past classes I never got the depth of his life story. Therefore, the kind of image that this monument project is that it wants us to know that he's in control and in power because of the way he is standing which is to me showing he has a sense of leadership and another observation that justifies this is by what he is wearing which to me seems to be a uniform or formal wear and his facial expression being shown in this sculpture is very calm and serious. Now, on the sides of the statue, there is a young freed African-American woman holding a plant and looking up at Henry and two orphaned children a boy and a girl, on their end the boy seems to be lifting the girl up to Henry Ward Beecher. Now what this to me means is a symbolism of worship and gratitude or devotion, the reason why I say this is because in one of the readings I have read during this course I remember something that was said where Henry War Beecher is known as the white savior in society because he was an advocate for Abolitionism and more, because of the way how the other sculptures are being shown and represented. I chose to focus on this particular monument the most because I noticed how there was so much controversy leading up to the making and aftermath of the statue due to the history behind it, so I really wanted to see and learn the reasoning for myself behind it. Oh ! one of the things that I forgot to mention is the inscription on the back of the statue which has a very interesting saying such as " The grateful gift of multitudes of all classes and creeds and conditions at home and abroad to honor the great, Apostle of the brotherhood of man". To conclude, one of the things I enjoyed about this trip was learning about the history and how it impacted our society and why the sculptors made the choices they made when adding the details they chose for their art and that was really helpful to me when learning.