The Memorial

In August 2015, The Freedom Suits Memorial Steering Committee published a request for proposals from regional artists for a memorial sculpture. In March, the committee selected sculptor Preston Jackson’s design for a dynamic visual narrative to memorialize the hundreds of freedom suits plaintiffs and lawyers who went to court in St. Louis to sue for their freedom in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The Illinois Top 200 Project recently ranked Jackson No. 6 in the category of Illinois artists and architects behind the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rhoe. And he is the first individual on the list who is still living.

Jackson is a professor emeritus at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where he continues to teach foundry techniques, and the owner of a gallery in Peoria, Illinois. A specialist in cast bronze, his works include dozens of public sculptures. In Illinois alone, these include a statue of legendary jazz musician Miles Davis in Alton, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the NAACP entitled “Acts of Intolerance” in Springfield, and a monument that recalls Abraham Lincoln’s decision to permit African American soldiers to fight in the Civil War called “From Cottonfield to Battlefield” in Decatur.

His design for the Freedom Suits Memorial called for a cast bronze work 8 feet wide by 4 feet deep and 14 feet tall. Each angle of the sculpture contains a pictorial lesson on the lawsuits and the times. It incorporates both free-standing and relief sculptures in a construction recalling the dome and cupola of the Old Courthouse.

“This is a very important project, which fits my life’s work, telling the visual history of our country in a compelling and effective manner that is appropriate for all,” Jackson said. “I feel it is imperative that the descendants of slaves see themselves as strong people, as survivors, and this sculpture will certainly send that important message.”