Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell paid tribute Thursday to Louisville Sculptor Ed Hamilton on the Senate floor during his remarks celebrating Black History Month.

“For more than 30 years, Americans have set aside one month every year to remember in a special way the contributions of African Americans to our national life. Black History Month has its roots in an old February tradition of celebrating the life and work of Frederick Douglass, the great writer and abolitionist. But its expansion over the years has given us an opportunity to recall the many other black men and women whose personalities enliven our nation's history — but whose stories were often overlooked by those who recorded it.

“Today, Black History Month is also an occasion to draw attention to outstanding African Americans of our own day — people like Ed Hamilton, one of America's great artists and one of Kentucky's favorite sons.

“As a boy growing up on Walnut Street in Louisville, Ed learned the value of hard work and the importance of family from his Dad, a businessman and a World War I vet. And from his Mom, he learned to think big. ‘You can do anything,’ she always said. And so, roller-skating around the tight-knit neighborhood around the Hamilton family home at Walnut and 7th, Ed would learn to dream.

“It's one of the ironies of history that so many great artists and thinkers barely ever left their hometowns. The whole world opened up to Shakespeare in a tiny town in England. Rembrandt saw all of history on the faces of merchants in Amsterdam. The Divine Comedy was written in exile. And for Ed Hamilton, Louisville has always been enough.

“Ed and his family have lived in the same house on 43rd Street for decades. And all of his sculptures — from the Amistad memorial in New Haven to the African American Civil War Memorial monument here in Washington — were brought to life in the same Shelby Street studio.

‘Louisville has been my lifeblood,’ he says.

“Ed's memories of post-war Louisville are vivid — right down to the sharp smell of the stockyards and the sweet smell of hops that floated from the breweries. He remembers spending too much time at the Lyric Theater — and being fascinated as a young boy by a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln at the public library on 4th and York.

“It was the seed of his life’s calling. Next year, more than half a century after Ed gazed at that bronze statue of Lincoln outside the public library, Kentucky will celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth with a new statue of Lincoln, this one by Ed, at Waterfront Park in Louisville.

“Ed’s life didn’t always follow a straight path. As a kid, his mom wanted him to be a doctor. But a teacher at Parkland Middle School saw his talent as an artist and decided she wasn’t going to let him waste it. So she called his Mom at home. ‘I think Ed's got something,’ she said, ‘and I want to help him develop it.’

“At Shawnee High School, other teachers did the same. Ed developed a love for sculpture — and for a pretty girl named Bernadette — during his time at the Art Center School. They got married. And for the last 40 years, Bernadette has been his confidante and special muse.

“Early on in their marriage, Ed taught ceramics and sculpture at Iroquois High School. He enjoyed the work. It was a stable job. But everything changed after a chance encounter in 1973. That’s when Ed met Barney Bright, the only man in Louisville who was actually earned a living as a sculptor. ‘Barney invited me into his studio,’ Ed later recalled, ‘and my entire life changed.’

“Channeling the entrepreneurial spirit of his parents, Ed decided to set out on his own. And after a few years of working on abstract pieces and some impressive but minor liturgical art, the big breakthrough came. It was a commission for a bust of Booker T. Washington at Hampton University in Virginia. Ed always told Bernadette they didn't need to move to a big city for his work. If he was good enough, he said, they'd come to him. Now they were.

“When the Hampton commission came, in the early 80s, Ed had never been on a plane before. So when it came time to visit the school, he took a Greyhound bus. It stopped in every town and hamlet for 600 miles. When they told him he had the job, he called Bernadette to tell her the good news — and to tell her he was coming home in a plane.

“Other important commissions followed: a statue of Joe Louis in Detroit. The Amistad Memorial in New Haven. York, the slave who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their western expedition, in Louisville. And then, the Spirit of Freedom monument in Washington — an epic work that teaches thousands of Americans each year about the vital role the slaves played in the Union victory in the Civil War.

“The movie ‘Glory’ focused on a single regiment of black soldiers. The Spirit of Freedom honors all 200,000 of them, including nearly 24,000 from Kentucky alone. This fighting force of former slaves made up about 10 percent of the Union Army. Twenty percent of these brave soldiers and sailors died in battle.

“The Spirit of Freedom was six years in the making. Ed says he used to dream about it in his sleep. The final product features three soldiers and a sailor on one side. On the other side are the grandparents and parents of three children, one of whom is on his way to battle. Another child is an infant.

“The message of the statue is clear: when the war began, everyone in the family it depicts was a slave. When the war ended, they were free. Some had lived their entire lives in bondage, but their children would not. Black men had helped secure a life of freedom for themselves, their families, and future generations — and helped unite a country.

“The Spirit of Freedom is a tribute to the soldiers who fought. It’s also a special gift to their descendents. One woman, who came from Seattle to see it, sent a letter to the museum’s director when she got back home. Here’s what she wrote: ‘I don’t know what I expected when I came to see the memorial, but when I came up out of the escalator and this statue rose in front of me my eyes were filled with tears.’

“Ed has two big binders of letters just like these at home. This one, from a woman in Louisville, is typical: ‘Dear Ed: How wonderful for you to make history come alive for generations to come. Now you are making history yourself as a sculptor and an African American. It is all wonderfully earned and deserved.’

“Ed’s gotten a lot of awards. In 1996 he was given the Governor’s Artists Award in the Arts. In 2000, he was made an honorary doctor of Humane Letters at Spalding University. In 2001 he was inducted into the Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians. In 2004 he was made an honorary doctor of arts at Western Kentucky University.

“But he wears his fame lightly. Locals are surprised to see him walking down the aisles at Kroger. And he always answers his own phone. ‘I don’t believe my own press,’ he says. ‘This is all fleeting.’

“Speaking once about the Spirit of Freedom statue, Ed called it an ‘honor’ for him to pay tribute to the thousands of black men who gave their lives in the service of freedom but who were not allowed to march in the victory parades after the war was over.

“In this Black History Month, it is an honor for me to pay tribute to Ed Hamilton on behalf of all Kentuckians — and on behalf of the many thousands of people across the country who have been touched by his special gift.”

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