A new sculpture by African American artist Preston Jackson has been installed at King Park in Urbana. Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr., it makes reference to major moments in the Civil Rights struggle, depicting a bus from the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma, Alabama, where those demonstrating for voting rights led a march in 1965. Preston Jackson is perhaps best known locally for his sculpture outside of the Douglass Library in Champaign. The new King sculpture is a publicly-funded art project, chosen by the Urbana Public Arts Commission, and funded by $75,000 of TIF money from tax dollars.
