Birmingham firm to develop Rosa Parks, Helen Keller statue sites at Alabama State Capitol

A working model for the Rosa Parks statue sits in front of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery on Oct. 11, 2023. The final version will stand at about 15 feet tall. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)

A state commission Tuesday selected an engineering firm to begin site development for the Rosa Parks and Helen Keller statues that will be erected on the Alabama State Capitol.

The Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission selected MBA Engineers based in Birmingham to build the structural base for both statues.

“We’re really excited about the possibility of being involved in this project and love to help in any way we can,” said Keith Owens, president of MBA Engineers.

Montgomery-based architectural firm SS&L Architects also submitted a request for the project, but some commission members didn’t think the firm understood “the lifecycle of the project,” as commission member Rev. Agnes Lover said.

SS&L Architects focused on past projects in their presentation and said they can provide 3D renderings for the commission to consider through the process.

Commission member Tracy Morant Adams that “the MBA firm seemed like they were more in tune to what our needs are and had a capacity to establish that.”

The commission also received an update on the Parks statue. Sculptor Julie Knight, an artist based in Georgia, worked with Birmingham-based Clark Memorials, which produces monuments and headstones, to design the granite base on which Parks will stand.

Knight said the statue and the base are finished, she said. Chase Tourney, a representative from Clark Memorials, said he’ll work with the firms to get the base installed.

The Parks statue will be installed on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. Both Parks and Keller’s statues could go up in Montgomery early next year .

The statues are expected to cost about $611,000, according to previous projections. The commission has raised about $700,000 for the statues. The remaining amount will be used for site maintenance.

Oregon-based artist Jay Warren is sculpting the Helen Keller statute.

The Alabama Legislature in 2019 approved the installation of statues of Keller and Parks on the Alabama State Capitol grounds, the first women to be so honored. According to the commission website , both statues were to be unveiled in February 2023. Funding for Keller’s statue, expected to cost almost $300,000 ($245,000 for the sculpture and $50,000 for site preparation), was not clear until late last year .

Parks’ arrest on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, considered the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Keller, a Tuscumbia native who lost her sight and hearing before her second birthday, became a world-renowned author and advocate for the rights of the disabled.

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