Workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture on east side of the St. Louis Civil Courts building in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The memorial honors hundreds of enslaved Missourians who filed a series of legal challenges, mostly before the Civil War, seeking freedom. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Tim Crusoe watches as workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. "It's hard to explain. I think it's just magnificent," said Crusoe.Ìý
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
The Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture was designed by artist Preston Jackson.
Joel Currier
The Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture is designed by artist Preston Jackson.
Joel Currier
The Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture, designed by artist Preston Jackson, is proposed for the plaza just east of the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis.
Joel Currier
Workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture on east side of the St. Louis Civil Courts building in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
As St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason watched workers lower the 14-foot bronze statue atop a granite base on the east side of the St. Louis Civil Courts building downtown Wednesday morning, he beamed.
It was the first time he had seen it in person, and it had lessons to share.
“This monument tells every lawyer that comes by here, every prospective juror, every witness, every officer, that in this courthouse, people have the right to be heard,†Mason said. “People have the right to have their legal rights protected. People have a right to the verdicts that the evidence says they’re entitled to.â€
The Freedom Suits Memorial statue was placed in the new Freedom Plaza next to the courthouse. It will be formally dedicated at 5 p.m. Monday. The effort has taken at least a decade.
The statue honors hundreds of enslaved Missourians who filed a series of legal challenges, mostly before the Civil War, seeking freedom. Missouri law said that if an enslaved person was taken to a free state long enough to establish residency, he or she became free and stayed free when they returned to Missouri.
Some won their freedom, but those who did not could be sold to more repressive states. Dred and Harriet Scott won, but their suit was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
St. Louis was the country’s most active legal venue for such cases for nearly 60 years.
The statue is part of a $1 million effort that will include the engraving of about 330 enslaved people's names around the granite base, the plaza that includes benches and lighting, and an online component with more research and information. The Freedom Suits Memorial Steering Committee has raised about $780,000 in private donations.
Attorney Paul Venker is the head of the steering committee and knew nothing about the freedom suits when Mason asked him to help. He pointed out many suits were filed by women, because only they could ask for freedom for themselves and their children.
The sculpture shows a woman at a judge’s bench, under a depiction of the rotunda of the Old Courthouse. The back of the sculpture shows a slaveowner’s house and a handler along the riverfront, and one side shows Native Americans canoeing on the river.
“These plaintiffs had to have all white people supporting them — affidavits and testimony. And yet they persevered,†Venker said. “I know plenty of people now are intimidated by coming to the courthouse. Imagine how a slave must have felt, knowing that this would not likely go in their favor.â€
The sculpture is by Preston Jackson, a retired professor at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago who now lives in Peoria, Illinois. As he watched workers maneuver the sculpture, he said St. Louis impressed him during his research, and he’d like to live here some day. “This is like the heart of America. So many important things happened right here that involved race and humanity.â€
He depicted several races on the sculpture on purpose, he said. “It’s about coming together, but in coming together there has to be knowledge. Whether it’s negative or positive, you have to know why things happened and how, so that you can have a better tomorrow.â€
Photos: Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture installed in St. Louis
The city preservation board voted 6-0 this week in favor of the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture.
Workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture on east side of the St. Louis Civil Courts building in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The memorial honors hundreds of enslaved Missourians who filed a series of legal challenges, mostly before the Civil War, seeking freedom. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture on the east side of the Civil Courts building in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.ÌýThe artwork commemorates the hundreds of lawsuits filed by slaves and their pro-abolition lawyers who petitioned Missouri courts for freedom under the “once free always free laws.â€
Tim Crusoe watches as workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. "It's hard to explain. I think it's just magnificent," said Crusoe.Ìý
The Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture, designed by artist Preston Jackson, is proposed for the plaza just east of the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis.
Sculptor Preston Jackson (left) and St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason congratulate each other on the installation of Preston's Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture that Mason helped spearhead the placement of on east side of the St. Louis Civil Courts building in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The memorial honors hundreds of enslaved Missourians who filed a series of legal challenges, mostly before the Civil War, seeking freedom.Ìý
Workers install the Freedom Suits Memorial sculpture on east side of the St. Louis Civil Courts building in St. Louis on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com