A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis was installed Friday, at the very spot where a contentious monument to the confederacy stood for more than 110 years in the town square before it was dismantled in 2020.
Work crews gently rested the 12-foot-tall (3.7-meter-tall) statue into place as the internationally acclaimed sculptor, Basil Watson, looked on carefully.
A large bronze statue of the late civil rights leader and politician Congressman John Lewis is installed where a monument to the Confederacy was brought down in 2020, in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, in Decatur, Ga. Ron Harris / AP.
Lewis was known for his role at the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement and urged others to get in "good trouble" for a cause he saw as vital and necessary.
In DeKalb County where the Confederate monument stood for more than a century, protesters have invoked "good trouble" in calling for the swift removal of the obelisk.
The statue of Lewis will be officially unveiled on Aug. 24. »