A project that took off with an idea, a conversation, a $5,000 retainer, and no real idea of where the rest of the money would come from is finally ready to land Sept. 30, at Eatonton’s Veterans Wall of Honor Park.
A bronze statue honoring Eatonton native and Tuskegee Airman Hiram Little will be unveiled at 11 a.m. that day following an approximate six-year effort spearheaded by Kevin Tomson-Hooper of The Artisans Village amid several other community leaders and supporters.
Before the public gets its first look, however, there remains a little more work to do. World-renowned, Atlanta-based sculptor Basil Watson is expected to help supervise the installation of his work Sept. 28, when the eight-foot statue arrives to be mounted on its granite base, already on site. The statue will then remain wrapped until the dedication ceremony two days later.
Once mounted and secured, the statue’s head will be approximately 12 feet above the ground. Getting to that point has involved considerably more than simply commissioning a sculpture, however.
The idea for a statue emerged in 2020 as several Eatonton residents discussed finding a way to recognize a local Black historical figure whose story could serve as an educational and motivational tool. Little, who grew up in Putnam County and maintained ties to Putnam County’s Texas AME Church, emerged as the subject.
Born in 1919, Little served with the 477th Bombardment Group, the first Black bombing unit in U.S. military history, famously a part of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. He performed mechanical work while also training to fly, though the war ended before he completed flight training. Little then spent a long career with the U.S. Postal Service. He died Feb. 18, 2017.
Finding someone to turn Little’s story into bronze was the first challenge.
Tomson-Hooper contacted artist and UGA faculty member Joseph Norman, who he knew through prior mural projects in Eatonton. Norman researched 17 sculptors, narrowed the field to three, and eventually recommended Watson, a Jamaica-born, Atlantabased sculptor whose work in Georgia includes monuments to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, among others.
Watson visited Eatonton and met with the core group before agreeing to take on the project. Local supporters scraped together an initial $5,000 retainer, allowing design work to begin.
“That kind of got him working on it, but he knew we had no money then,” Tomson-Hooper said. “It’s concept, design, retainer, and then you start raising money.”
Ultimately, the project revealed itself to cost about $300,000, with approximately $160,000 going to Watson’s work and materials. Bronze costs alone also increased more than 25 percent during the years the project was underway.
Tomson-Hooper said fundraising stalled at times for months. Momentum finally accelerated within the past year, with the Farmers & Merchants Bank Foundation and bank owner Chip Benton providing major financial support, along with several private donors. Each of their names will appear on a bronze plaque to be placed on the monument’s base.
Putnam County also took on a substantial share of the site work.
County workers constructed and set the base, which Tomson-Hooper estimated could have cost about $30,000, landscaped the area, installed a flagpole, and is adding lighting to the site. Maintenance crews also powerwashed sidewalks and repainted the park gazebo ahead of the unveiling. Another lastminute cleaning is planned before the unveiling.
Early discussions considered placing the Little statue downtown, in front of the courthouse on a traffic island anchored by a Confederate monument on the opposite end. However, concerns about traffic, accessibility, dirt, and long-term maintenance eventually pushed organizers toward the nearby Veterans Wall of Honor Park.
A conversation Tomson-Hooper had with former county commissioner Bob Landau, who died at 92 last October, helped settle the issue. Landau asked him who would maintain the statue decades after its original organizers were gone and suggested placing it in the nearby county-owned park.
“Who’s going to take care of this?” Tomson-Hooper said Landau asked him. “Who’s going to clean it? Who’s going to repair it?”
The answer became the county; plus, the veterans park offered a setting organizers also thought was more appropriate given Little’s military service. The finished site will fly an American flag with a Tuskegee Airmen flag beneath it, the latter provided by a Tuskegee Airmen organization in Atlanta.
Planning for the Sept. 30 ceremony has become a project of its own. Tomson-Hooper said Avis Williams, Nikki Barber, Simone and Grady Jones, Jim Stone, and Mark Smith helped organize the event, with assistance from VFW members. Local elected officials, clergy, several members of Little’s family, and representatives of state and federal officials are expected to attend, as well as a representative from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.
For Tomson-Hooper, Sept. 30 will mark the end of one long process and the beginning of another – making sure Little’s story remains visible in his hometown to generations who never knew him.
“This is a story that needs to be told,” Tomson-Hooper recalled Benton saying as the fundraising effort neared its goal. “This town needs to know this story.”