In the shade of the September afternoon, Jerome Meadows sits beside the Walnut Street Bridge, thinking of punch lists. He is thinking of cranes. He is thinking of Ed Johnson.
The product of years of work – the dialogues with his muse, the distillation of research, historical violence and hope into art – was installed this week beside Chattanooga’s historic bridge. His work is just days away from becoming a permanent fixture in the history and psychology of the city.
On Sunday, the visual artist from Savannah, Georgia, will reveal his rendering of Johnson, the innocent Black man who was lynched on the bridge 115 years ago, and Styles Hutchins and Noah Parden, the Black lawyers who fought on behalf of Johnson’s innocence all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The depiction of the three men – representing grace, courage and compassion – tells both the history of the unjust murder of an innocent Black man and the legal fight that ensued. It also presents an artistic epilogue to the story. That chapter is depicted specifically in the posture of Johnson – his step taking him away from the bridge and out of a noose, his eyes shifted toward the heavens.
“In other words, after all these years, after all of the silence and the disregard and the horror of his actual murder, he’s finally walking away from that,” Meadows said. “He’s finally being free from that.”