Hillsdale College’s Freedom Walk is expanding sooner than expected — and to Washington, D.C.
Although the college originally expected a fall 2017 dedication for its statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, based on the sculpture’s progress, Hillsdale is confident he can join Abraham Lincoln in Kresge Plaza at commencement in May, Chief Staff Officer Mike Harner said.
Additionally, the college announced it’s plans for a statue of James Madison for the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C., because of Madison’s work in writing the U.S.’s founding document.
“The Constitution is the chief subject at the Kirby Center,” President Larry Arnn said in an email. “Mr. Madison had something to do with that.”
Harner said the Douglass statue is progressing as scheduled. The award-winning artist — Bruce Wolfe, who also sculpted Hillsdale’s Margaret Thatcher statue — completed a half-scale maquette of the piece in mid-October. He is now working to refine and enlarge it in clay to be 7 feet tall, for casting in early January, Harner said.
“Mr. Wolfe has made great progress and projects completion in April, so the commencement date works,” Harner said.
Douglass will stand across from Lincoln in the southeastern section of the plaza.
“It’ll be in a very prominent spot,” Péwé said. “We’re excited about the possibility, though it takes time for an artist to do their work.”
Wolfe’s sketch of the statue depicts Douglass at the height of his oratory powers when he was 43, the age he would have been two years before speaking at Hillsdale College for the first time on Jan. 21, 1863.
“We are proud that Mr. Douglass came here twice,” said Arnn, who, with his wife, is helping to fund the statue. “He represents fundamental things about the purposes of the college.”
Wolfe and college administrators discussed several postures for Douglass, including the one in the photo of him taken at Hillsdale College in which he is sitting. For the statue, however, he will be standing like Lincoln and holding a book.
As for Madison, details are still being discussed for the first statue in the Freedom Walk not on Hillsdale’s main campus. His installation would go in the Kirby Center’s front courtyard, likely on the building’s right side, Péwé said. The college hasn’t yet selected the artist and statue, said Matthew Spalding, associate vice president and dean of educational programs in Washington, D.C.
Despite fighting alongside Gen. George Washington in the American Revolution, contributing to “The Federalist Papers,” serving as a congressman and secretary of state, and being dubbed father of the Constitution, Madison is relatively unrepresented in the capital city. There is a statue of him in the U.S. Capitol as well as the James Madison Memorial Building, one of three locations that make up the Library of Congress. The main building is named for Thomas Jefferson.
“There are no statues of Madison around the city,” Spalding said in an email. “He is the father of the Constitution and the great statesman of American constitutionalism.”
The Kirby Center would give Madison a prominent location on Massachusetts Avenue, a few blocks from the National Mall.
Hillsdale is also discussing the possibility of doing a second statue of Douglass and putting it at the Kirby Center, Péwé said. A Douglass statue is in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall as well as in his former estate, which is now a historic site, in the district’s Anacostia neighborhood.
“We’re looking into it,” he said. “It would be a great possibility to have one there and in Hillsdale.”