Suncoast Infrastructure Inc. foreman Dallas Cook, top, employee Jerrel Walker and a passing vehicle are seen through ironwork of the former Valley Department Store Friday on Washington Street.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[9/21/03]More than 200 people watched Saturday as the first shovels of earth were turned to begin the physical work to erect the Mississippi African-American Monument in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

“This monument recognizes the heroism of Mississippi’s sons of color, too long forgotten by history,” said Jim Woodrick, the Civil War historian for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “It is part of Mississippi’s multilayered history.”

During Saturday’s ceremonies, the sculptor’s model, built to scale, was unveiled.

The 16 1/2-foot monument, the first honoring blacks in the Vicksburg park and the first in U.S. National Military Park history, will be on Grant Avenue, near the Kansas monument. Park tourists making the full drive through will see the monument twice.

It is expected to be completed and presented to the park on Feb. 14.

Its inscription will read: “Commemorating the service of the 1st and 3rd Mississippi Infantry Regiments, African descent, and Mississippians of African descent who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign.”

The monument depicts two soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Mississippi Infantry Regiments and one black civilian.

Soil from Miliken’s Bend, an area of land north of Vicksburg on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River where nearly 600 blacks died in battle, was spread over the area where the groundbreaking took place.

The $300,000 monument was funded partly through the State of Mississippi and with $25,000 from the City of Vicksburg, allocated in 1988, during the first term of former Mayor Robert Walker.

Walker, who led the local committee to pursue the monument, addressed Saturday’s gathering.

“My family and I visited the grounds of the park when I was a child on Sundays after church. My appreciation was always limited, something was missing,” said Walker, 58 and currently an assistant professor of history at Jackson State University. “I never felt a connection between the park and myself. This monument will make the representation in the park historically correct.”

He pointed out that two plaques honoring black soldiers were in the park before World War II, when they were melted down for the war effort.

“We wrote letters, and I talked to as many people as I could,” Walker said. “I became totally committed to this project. It had to be, and it was going to be.”

Dr. Kim Sessums, a gynecologist in Brookhaven and the sculptor of the Mississippi African-American Monument, said he researched and studied for two years while working on the project. His design was chosen from six applicants who submitted proposals.

“Some things come along that you are meant to be a part of,” Sessums said. “This was it for me.”

Walker said he was looking for someone approachable and creative when considering a sculptor for the project.

“It had to be someone willing to work and burn the midnight oil,” Walker said. “They needed to be an open-minded person who could work with anybody and see the project as a special challenge.”

Dr. Maria Luisa Alvarez Harvey, dean of the Honors College at Jackson State University, brought 30 honors freshmen to the groundbreaking ceremony.

“It was a historic moment for Mississippi,” she said. “All of us are a part of the history here today. It speaks highly of Mississippi to be first to recognize the efforts of the African- American soldiers. I hope to bring two buses of students back on Feb. 14.”