On September 25th, 1999, the Battle Creek community dedicated a statue to celebrate and commemorate the legacy of the national heroine, Sojourner Truth, who chose Battle Creek as her home in the last 26 years of her life. The statue, alongside educational programs, is one of the many actions the community has taken to commemorate Truth’s legacy and continue her work promoting equality. The renowned California artist, Tina Allen, designed a 12-foot-tall sculpture of Truth, the world’s largest statue of Truth. Sojourner Truth is depicted during a public speech, standing on a podium, facing a seating area, next to a lectern that holds a bronze plaque with information about the monument and her story. The last sentence inspires the visitors to follow her legacy “…It is for each of us who stand here to carry on the work of truth.” On the stonewall behind the statue is a plaque with her signature, which she wrote in an autograph book owned by a local high school student on April 23rd, 1880. Two other bronze plaque presents her quotes – “…and Truth shall be my abiding name.” “Lord, I have done my duty and I have told the truth and kept nothing back.” Facing the statue is a bronze plaque with her short biography: “Sojourner Truth was born as the slave Isabella in New York State about 1797. As a child she spoke only low Dutch and, like most slaves, she never learned to read or write. While she was in bondage, she married Thomas, a fellow slave, and had five children. She was sold to four new owners before walking away to freedom in 1826. Isabella then settled in New York City until 1843, when she changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Relying on her deep religious faith, she was determined to travel the land as an itinerant preacher, speaking the truth and fighting against injustice. She became a prominent figure in several national social reform movements, working for the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, temperance, prison reform, and the rights of former slaves. Sojourner first came to Battle Creek in 1856 to speak to the Quaker Friends of Human Progress. She moved to the area a year later and lived here for the last twenty-six years of her life. She died on November 26, 1883, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. Sojourner Truth was perhaps the most famous African American woman in 19th century America. For over forty years she was a passionate advocate for the dispossessed, using her quick wit and fearless tongue to fight for human rights. May her legacy live on.” Read more...

This Underground Railroad sculpture commemorates the people in the Battle Creek area who assisted enslaved people to freedom while risking their lives. During the 1840s and 1850s, fleeing enslaved people passed through Battle Creek on their way to Canada. People, mainly Quakers, in the area provided them with a safe place, protected them from slave catchers (after the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850), and helped them reach the next station safely. Kellogg Foundation commissioned Ed Dwight to design the memorial in 1993, and it was dedicated on October 24th, 1993, near the Kellogg House. Among the other monuments the foundation generously funded in Battle Creek is a statue of the abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth that sculptress Tina Allen designed in 1999. At 28 feet long and 14 feet high, it is the largest Underground Railroad monument worldwide. It depicts the famous Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) while guiding a group of enslaved to freedom. She stands next to the local abolitionists, Underground Railroad conductors, and station masters Sarah Bowen Hussey (1808-1899) and her husband Erastus Hussey (1800-1889) as they help enslaved people to a safe place. Erastus Hussey was a politician who advocated for abolition and was an editor in the Michigan anti-slavery publication: Liberty Press. The Husseys have helped more than a thousand fugitive slaves to freedom. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In her late twenties, she escaped and became a free woman who made it her life mission to free as many enslaved people as possible. Tubman became an Underground Railroad conductor, returned to Maryland 19 more times, and helped tens of people escape slavery. During the civil war, she led hundreds to freedom as a scout and spy in the Union Army. She continued advocating and working for equal rights till her last days. The Bronze plaque reads: “Memorial to the Underground Railroad. From the 1830s to 1861, thousands of slaves in the southern United States courageously escaped northward to freedom to what became known as the Underground Railroad. Along this secret network, ‘conductors’ like Battle Creek’s Erastus and Sarah Hussey, whose likenesses are captured in this memorial, took great personal risks to ensure the safety of escaping slaves. Harriet Tubman, known as the Black Moses, was a national heroine of this epic struggle and is depicted leading another brave family away from the shackles of slavery. This memorial honors the Underground Railroad and is dedicated to the strength of the human spirit in the quest for freedom. Ed Dwight, Sculptor. Denver, Colorado. 1993. This sculpture was made possible by a gift from the Glenn A. Cross Estate and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.” Click here to explore places about Harriet Tubman and here to read about women abolitionists on the Underground Railroad. Read more...

At the park bearing her name stands a life-size bronze statue of Viola Liuzzo – a civil rights activist that had been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). On March 25th, 1965, Liuzzo, a 39 years old Detroiter housewife and a mother of five, came from Detroit to Alabama to march with 25,000 activists supporting African-Americans’ right to vote. After the rally, she shuttled marchers and volunteers from Montgomery to Selma, and KKK members shot her in the head and killed her. She is the only white woman to die during the 1960’s civil rights fights. The statue’s dedication ceremony was held on July 23rd, 2019, in front of a crowd of a few hundred people, among them were Liuzzo’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The statue was created by the local Detroiter artist, Austen Brantley. It depicts Liuzzo’s determined expression while she mid-marches, barefoot holding her shoes in one hand, walking away from the KKK hood that lying on the ground; she is moving forward, leaving violence and hatred behind her. Read more...