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JACKSON, Tenn. — Nov. 2, 2020 — For 12 years, Lee Benson has been working to complete his “Seven Pillars” sculpture, and the monument was dedicated in a ceremony by the city of Jackson Oct. 30.

The sculpture installation began in early June at Shirlene Mercer Walking Trail Park in Jackson. Benson, university professor of art and department chair, created the “Seven Pillars” to celebrate the contributions of African Americans to the success of Jackson and Madison County. Its name comes from Proverbs 9:1, which says, “Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out her seven pillars.”

Twelve years ago, Benson was building another sculpture and was short of funding. He talked with a local dentist, Melvin Wright, to ask for help, and in that conversation, Wright told Benson: “The black man was left out of the last 100 years of Jackson’s history. I’ll be darned if we’ll be left out of the next 100 years.”

That comment gave Benson the idea for a sculpture that celebrated African Americans’ contributions to Jackson and Madison County. Benson gained support to build this sculpture from Jackson’s mayor at the time, Jerry Gist. They decided to place the sculpture in what is now Shirlene Mercer Park. At the same time, the economy took a downturn, and the city did not have the money to fund the project, Benson said.

Once or twice every year after that, Benson would speak with Gist and ask if they could go forward with the project. Finally, during Gist’s last year in office, he gave Benson approval to begin. Since then, Benson has been working on securing funding, meeting with city officials and city council members and working with Jackson’s new mayor, Scott Conger, to finish the project.

The sculpture consists of seven large Tennessee marble boulders — each representing African American historical figures — sitting on top of a hill. Around the hill will be three rings of trees, which represent the youth of Jackson. Seven plaques with details of the honorees surround the hill.

“I wanted these trees that are a metaphor for the children of Jackson to have these people to look up to, to see them as very prominent in their own personal history, but also as very prominent in the history of the community they live in,” Benson said.

From the beginning of the project, Benson said he knew he wanted black leaders in the community to select those recognized on the pillars. Tony Black, the city of Jackson’s director of recreation and parks, led a committee to make that decision.

Six pillars are named after the prominent historical figures Bishop Isaac Lane, founder of Lane College; Austin Raymond Merry, the Jackson school system’s first black educator and principal; Miles Vandahurst Lynk, physician and founder of the University of West Tennessee College of Medicine and Surgery; Beebe Steven Lynk, one of the first African American women chemists; Samuel McElwee, the first African American elected to a third term in the Tennessee legislature; and Milmon Mitchell, a founding member and president of Jackson’s NAACP branch. The seventh pillar is dedicated to numerous others who have made notable contributions.

“Those individuals that these massive marble boulders on the hill up above us represent are the first who we recognize as worthy representatives,” Benson said during the dedication ceremony. “They are not the only ones, for we all know there are countless others just as worthy, and many of those who have been long forgotten, but are recorded in God’s book of life and will be honored one day, not here on this ground in Jackson, Tennessee, but on a more holy ground in front of God’s throne.”

Benson said he wanted to do this project for his father who passed away several years ago. His father was a Baptist minister who integrated his church in the 1960s — “back when no one in Tennessee was integrating their churches,” Benson said — and he also did mission work in California with American Indians.

“[My parents] were very involved in the acknowledging that all God’s children are God’s children, and God makes human beings and that’s it,” he said. “And so, this was sort of something that I could do that I think my dad would be very proud of.”