CLEVELAND, Miss. — A group promoting the heritage of the Mississippi Delta says it has commissioned sculptor Ed Dwight to work on a monument to the cotton industry, sharecropping and cotton field workers.
Khafre Inc., a nonprofit group based in Indianola, wants the monument to be part of a sharecroppers interpretive center in Bolivar County along U.S. Highway 61.
“We want to protect the legacy of former cotton pickers and sharecroppers and we must do whatever we can do to tell their story. We are the beneficiaries of all the labor and sweat that was put into this country,” C. Sade Turnipseed, the executive director of Khafre, told the Bolivar Commercial.
“We expect to have it all complete within five years. Washington, Sunflower, and Choctaw County have all donated land. We are seeking to purchase 20 acres of land in Bolivar County,” she said.
Turnipseed said interpretive centers will be in shotgun houses. She said each of the mini-museums will showcase the cotton industry.
“For example, shotgun houses in Sunflower County will embody information about ginning practices,” she said. “We’re still acquiring houses. Two have been donated but we need 20.”
The entire project costs
$26 million. Dwight’s portfolio includes the statue of Medgar Evers at Alcorn State University, the Alex Haley/Kunta Kinte Memorial on the city dock in Annapolis, Md., and a sculpture of Frederick Douglass in Anacostia, Md.
