ATLANTA — A statue of John Lewis was installed on Wednesday at a new park in Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Ambassador Andrew Young debuted the statue, at the new Rodney Cook Park on the Westside.
"It truly was an honor to join Ambassador Andrew Young and the Cook family at the new Rodney Cook Park on Atlanta’s Westside shortly after the installation of the Congressman John Lewis statue. The grand opening is happening soon!" the mayor tweeted.
The Rodney Cook park will be a 16-acre park in the shadow of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, featuring a pantheon to house statues of a number of Georgia's human rights luminaries, among them Nobel Peace laureates such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jimmy Carter and more than a dozen historical figures including W.E.B. DuBois, Joseph Lowery, Ambassador Young, and Coretta Scott King.
"Reclaiming land that was rendered unusable after a flood almost 2 decades ago, this new green space will provide urban farming programs, sports and youth activities, and a 10,000 volume library of the CT Vivian and Martin Luther King, Jr. families," the park's website states.
At the center of the park will be a towering peace column, on top of which will sit Tomochichi, a Yamacraw chief who was a foundational figure in Georgia.
"The Peace Column sits in the center of the park's western edge. Atop the column is a statue of Chief Tomochichi, who could have massacred the British settlers on the coast of Georgia, but chose peace instead," the park's site notse. "Tomochichi's actions began a 300-year tradition of peace in Georgia and he is considered our state's co-founder along with General James Oglethorpe. On top of the column, Tomochichi faces east towards our capital and the rising sun."