State lawmakers have secured $250,000 to commemorate photographer, filmmaker, author and activist Gordon Parks in St. Paul.
Rep. Samakab Hussein, DFL-St. Paul, and Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul announced the legislative appropriation on Sunday. It is intended to commemorate Parks, who began his photography career in St. Paul.
While plans for the memorial are still in development, Parks’ grandniece Robin Hickman-Winfield, Landmark Center executive director Amy Mino and others have discussed having a statue of Parks erected in Landmark Plaza. The project would be part of a “living memorial,” which Hickman-Winfield said goes beyond just a physical structure but has included other efforts to continue Parks’ legacy, such as the Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul or exhibits on Parks’ work.
Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kan., in 1912 but moved to St. Paul as a boy after his mother died. He would last return to St. Paul in 1998 to perform with a symphony orchestra at Landmark Center. He died in 2006 in New York at age 93.
“I am proud to have taken part in creating this living memorial to Parks, whose artistic journey began here in St. Paul,” Hawj said in a statement Monday. “While he traveled across the country in his lifetime, Minnesota is where he bought his first camera — his chosen ‘weapon’ against poverty and racism. Gordon Parks represents the best of Minnesota and the best of St. Paul. He made his dreams real and inspires people, young and old, to do the same today.”
Plans are also in development to create a permanent immersive exhibit featuring Parks’ works at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Hickman-Winfield said she expects there will be additional fundraising for that exhibit and it could be completed as early as March.
A permanent exhibit at the airport would cost around $75,000 a year, said Don Shelby, Hickman-Winfield’s longtime friend. Shelby suggested the exhibit in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
“I just think this exhibit is a good look on the Twin Cities and it celebrates one of the most important artists of all time,” Shelby said.
Parks got his start with photography, taking pictures at Frank Murphy’s store in downtown St. Paul. He went on to shoot fashion for Vogue, capture scenes of poverty in America for Life magazine and images of segregation for the Farm Security Administration. He was also a composer and the first Black director — he was best known for 1971’s “Shaft” — at a major Hollywood studio.
To see Gordon Parks’ photography and learn more about his life and his career, go to gordonparksfoundation.org.
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