 Exciting to be here today to unveil yet another beautiful mural that tells the story of Columbia. It tells specifically the story of the African seed and American son and the role that individuals, indeed, some very small and young individuals even played in helping shape the arc, not just of our city and our state, but of democracy in this country as we know it. Using this as an opportunity to elevate some amazing artists, the talent that we have in this community. And using this as an opportunity to pull the entire community together as the city council debated just different ways to capture this moment. And it's a moment that we've been living in and Dr. Donaldson will probably speak about the work we've done with Columbia. The SC63 over a project that was supposed to last maybe a year and now has gone for nearly a decade. This has been an opportunity, I believe, to pull people together in a very meaningful and special way. And obviously, the role that education plays and the integration of schools plays in helping define the American experience is unique and special. Of all the pictures, and I think when I first saw this photograph, it wasn't that long ago, relatively speaking, it immediately became iconic for me and having it captured in such a vivid way in this fantastic neighborhood is special. For those of you who may not be familiar with the entire effort that's being led by our Parks and Rec Foundation in partnership with one Columbia inspired by the work of Columbia SC63 and fully endorsed unanimously by our city council. This is being done in every single corner of the city, every single corner of the city. And this mural, the pursuit of education highlighting the desegregation of Rosewood Elementary is a very special piece of the puzzle. And we are celebrating every single one of them as if it were the only one. And we're so excited to be here at Valencia Park today. So I'm going to yield the microphone to my friend and our councilman, Will Brennan, who we sat through a number of different meetings as we were planning exactly what this vision would look like as we went forward. And Will really stood in the vanguard to make sure that we did it and we did it right and everything we do, even when we have difficult conversations, our results in our conversations ought to be edifying, ought to be focused on bringing people together, ought to be focused on speaking to our much better angels. And Will led boldly in that discussion. So my friend, Will Brennan. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for those inspiring words about our great city and the rich history that this amazing, wonderful mural represents. To everybody out there, thank you for coming today to District 3. Ed, thanks for coming to District 3. The South Kilburn neighborhood and this wonderful park. Valencia Park is truly the pride of this neighborhood with Michelle and the crew back there. I see it. Thanks so much for coming out today. And we're excited to have this great piece of public art here that tells such an important story to the history of our city. We're honored to have Dr. Bobby Donaldson expand on the history of this piece of public art, which creates the foundation for many future generations to educate them on the important history that took place in our Richland County Schools. Many of those schools are still standing and they still welcome with open arms all children. The mayor and my fellow council members believe it's important to tell the story of our history. Our public art initiatives throughout the city, they do a wonderful job of that. And of course, I couldn't go without thanking the artist, McClellan Douglas, fellow Dreer class of 98 alum, for sharing his passion and his vision with us in this city. We as residents of the city of Columbia, past, present and future, we are strong. We are resilient and we are one. Of course, my name is Henry Simons and I'm the assistant city manager for operations for the city of Columbia. Special thanks again to our mayor, Steve Benjamin for allowing this vision to come to life. We are grateful for all of our council members that are present with us today. They endorsed this project and we are so excited about what this is going to bring to our community. Today is the third public art dedication and of course each location is designed to tell a story about African Americans that were connected historically to their communities and how they influenced culture and society. So today we continue to celebrate the very essence of their courage, the very essence of their commitment and their unwavering determination and we highlight their collective contributions. We're grateful. So the baseball field behind me actually was a place where I played baseball as a kid and also coached in my later years. It reminds me of the days of my youth. It reminds me of how much I enjoyed playing the game of baseball. But today, as I look behind me, there's another reminder. There is now an opportunity for this current generation to be educated, to understand more of their history about the civil rights movement and how children can appreciate their past and how they can appreciate the decisions that were made back in 1964 that allowed them today to have more liberty in the pursuit of their education. For this, we are sincerely, sincerely grateful. This project was facilitated and funded through the Parks and Recreation Foundation. Of course, as the mayor indicated earlier, we partnered with Dr. Bobby Donaldson, who is the director of the Civil Rights History and Research for the University of South Carolina and has worked there as a professor for 20 years. You'll hear from him in just a moment. He also serves as the lead scholar for Columbia SC 63. Our story matters, which is a history initiative that chronicles the civil rights and social justice struggle in the city of Columbia. So we are aligned this project with some amazing work that's already been done all around the city. We also partnered with Lee Snailgrove, the executive director of One Columbia for Arts and Culture, and Lee is also a member of the Parks and Rec Foundation, which he has helped us facilitate this project in that capacity. We take pride in what we have accomplished with this initiative, and we are sincerely grateful. So I definitely want to acknowledge Fred Monk, who's the chair of our Parks and Recreation Foundation. Fred is here with us today. Fred, thank you so much for your presence on today and your support. And leadership, I also want to acknowledge our Parks and Recreation Leadership Team, the entire team. I won't get into saying names today, but they are here. Thank them so much for all their leadership and commitment to this project. And as Councilman Brennan has shared special thanks to McClellan Douglas, our featured artist for capturing the very essence of what we asked for. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Douglas. And again, thank you all for your presence on today. Now this time we'll have Dr. Bobby Donaldson come and provide some additional remarks. And of course we have the principal here of Rosewood Elementary School. Thank you so much for being here today. We're grateful for your presence also. So we'll have Dr. Donaldson come at this time. Thank you very much, Mr. Simons. Good afternoon, everyone. The date was March, May 17, 1954. A lawyer who was housed in 1119 Washington Street received a telegram that the United States Supreme Court had ruled in the case of Brown versus the Board of Education that schools in this country should be desegregated, that segregation was unconstitutional. That lawyer's name was Harold Boulware. He was featured in the first mural that we celebrated a few weeks ago. Mr. Boulware helped to organize a legal campaign in South Carolina that led to a landmark case called Briggs versus Elliott, based in Clarendon County, South Carolina. The Briggs case was the Thrust case, the most significant case of all the cases argued before the Supreme Court in the ruling of Brown v. Board of 1954. Several weeks later, a young woman from east over South Carolina sits on a city bus in Columbia, and she is accosted by the bus driver, and she files a lawsuit against the bus driver and SCENG. Her name is Sarah Mae Fleming Brown. Last week, we honored Ms. Brown at an unveiling in Woodland Park. Ten years after the Brown v. Board ruling and after the case of Sarah Mae Fleming, there were a group of parents in Columbia who were led by a woman named Majesca Monteith Simpkins. They were part of a group called the Richland County Citizens Committee, and they wanted to make sure that the schools of Columbia follow the dictates of the United States Supreme Court. It was ten years after the court said all schools should be desegregated with all deliberate speed. It took South Carolina decade to catch up with the Supreme Court ruling. In July of 1964, the Richland County Citizens Committee gathered in the sanctuary of the Second Nazarev Church on Elmwood Avenue. Ms. Simpkins and those parents came together to discuss, is this the moment? Is this the time to compel Columbia to follow the Supreme Court ruling? And on that evening, they said, this is the moment. This is the time. 1964 is the year. And then Ms. Simpkins said, if this is the moment, if this is the time, who shall we send? Who shall open the door? Who shall climb the steps in 1964? And there were parents there, and there were children there who said, send us. We'll go. They called the role of people who might open those doors and climb the steps. They called the name of Brenda Fuster, Oliver Washington Jr., Harris Wheeler, Eric Wheeler, Wilbert Harper, Margaret Cleo Taylor, Morris Newman, Bernadine Scott, Clarence Scott, Cheryl Frazier, Timothy Fuster, Jablonsky Frazier, Amos Fuster, Pamela Cleveland, Evelyn Cleveland, who's a large figure in the mural. Eugene Turnipsey and the young woman on the far right going through the gates of the school Rosewood, a young woman named Cynthia Turnipsey. And we're fortunate that Cynthia Turnipsey is with us today. Ms. Turnipsey, would you please stand? She's among those who entered the gate. And I see Cheryl Frazier Lycith, Oliver Washington Jr., all of those persons who in that first cohort of those who entered the gate, will you please stand? So I think Ms. Frazier went to hand and Mr. Washington was among those the first to desegregate Jura High School. And all those family members of those 20 plus persons who entered the gate in 1964, will you please stand? Thank you very much. Then the Turnipsey's and the Cleveland's and the Fuster's entered the gate on August 31st, 1964. There were photographers who captured that moment. A classic photograph exists now in the Library of Congress of those students climbing those steps. In the original photograph, there is a marker on the right hand side of the Rosewood School Gates, which I think is still there. There were two young white boys who were seated on the steps as Ms. Turnipsey and her cousins entered the gate. Above the head of the young white boys was a marker that said, erected by the people for the benefit of the children. Erected by the people for the benefit of the children. Today this mural is erected, installed, funded by the people for the benefit of the children. Thank you and please join my colleague, Lee Snelgrove. I have the hardest job here because I always have to follow Dr. Donaldson. And I scribble my notes like the night before and he's got decades of work putting his together. So in this mural, I was thinking about my relation to this mural and I thought about the role of public garden. So my son attends Rosewood Elementary. He's a kindergartener there. And this year would have been his first year. There was a day they intended in person. I had to take him there and walk him, not up the steps, but to the door or close to it. And he had to go up and do it himself and he had to be brave enough to walk up those stairs. And I had to be brave enough as a parent to let him do that and know that he was going to be safe for that day at the school. I had the advantage and the privilege that I knew that he was going there and he was going to be safe. And he was going to be cared for by his teachers and he's going to have friends very quickly. It was different for these students. It was very different for their parents. They didn't know what it was going to be like that first day. They probably didn't know what it was going to be like for the rest of the days that they were going to have to attend and they were going to have to stay with it. And I recognized their strength and their courage and their resolve because I see this photograph and I've seen this mural now. And I can see what challenges they had and what decisions they had to make. And it's my ability to see these images that I can better understand the life of these Colombians that were my fellow Colombians even if they are the Colombians of the past. And I can feel their burden and recognize how difficult the decisions that they made were. And that's the power of images and that's the power of these stories and that's the power of public art. It can teach us this empathy. It can demonstrate someone's bravery and it can tell an important story about who we are or who or what we care about and what we want others to know about us. And I'm excited that we have this in the Rosewood neighborhood and the South Kilburn neighborhood. And so I want to thank the mayor and city council and the city manager for recognizing the power of public art in a neighborhood setting like this. And I want to thank Dr. Donaldson and Mr. Simons for all their effort in putting this project together. I want to thank Todd Martin and Abedin Kelly who helped me usher through and make sure every artist had everything they needed along the way. Thanks to the Parks Foundation and the Parks Foundation Board. And thank you to the Rosewood community and the South Kilburn communities and Rosewood Elementary and support for these kinds of public projects. And certainly thank you to McClellan Douglas for his work on this mural and for being an artist that travels the country and represents us as Colombians. So I'll let McClellan come up and say a few words too. So you guys I'm not as great at orators as you might are. I like to usually let my artwork speak for itself. But I do appreciate the opportunity to speak. First I just wanted to thank everybody who put this project together throughout the city. I mean I think it's a really bold initiative and I think it was very important. I think you all deserve a round of applause. Everybody that had everything to do with this. This is an important project. A thought stayed in my head the whole time I was painting this. And it was you know this is around the time you know my parents were in school and you know they might have had a couple black kids in their class. But they don't have the experience that I had growing up and you know being able to work side to side in class with with my fellow black students. And the you know my black and brown friends have enriched my life in too many ways to articulate justifiably. Black and brown people should be able to see themselves in public spaces and really feel like they are part of this community. And I'm really humbled to be given an opportunity to shine a light on these kids who I can't imagine what that must have felt like at that young age to walk up there. And like you know Lisa like this parents must have felt to leave them leave them there. And you know these past couple years I've been you know I've noticed that though we have made some progress we still have a long way to go. And I'm just really humbled to be able to add something that is shines a light on the black community. And I want you know I think it's very important that the black and brown community in Columbia see themselves everywhere and feel like they're part of this community because you are. And I love you all thank you. It's profound in a number of different levels my friend. Thank you for sharing your gift with us. I am a believer that God gives every single one of us a number of gift gifts. Once you find that gift it's our challenge to use it to benefit the world. So McClellan thank you. Thank you for the boldness of character that these young students felt many many moons ago kicking down the doors for each and every one of us to hope we live up to our God given potential. So it's it's it's my honor to invite you all up. Let's cut the ribbon here and let's continue to open new chapters to Columbia's future every single day by properly recognizing our past. I bless you. Let's get this done. All right.