MILWAUKEE — This Black History Month we are looking at the story behind an iconic bronze statue of Martin Luther King Jr. here in Milwaukee.
We spoke to the artist, Erik Blome. The statue was unveiled more than a quarter-century ago.
"It really looks like a picture where you captured him mid-speech," said reporter Julia Fello. Blome agreed. "And I wanted him really animated and really alive. He's stepping off the pedestal, almost like he's about to take off," he said.
Sculptor Erik Blome created the statue, which pops out at you, as you drive past at MLK and Vine. When you get closer you discover so many more details, such as the fact that he is standing on a stack of books, which are close to the late Civil Rights leader. "I started looking into his Ph.D. and what he was interested in. So all the books here are all things he read and talked about in his speeches and in his sermons," said Blome.
It was this attention to detail back in the 1990s which allowed Blome to stand out from the rest. The YWCA put out a call for artists to create a statue just down the street from its Milwaukee headquarters. "I remember making every single thing on it. I was up on scaffolds and trying to work on the head way up high like that. I remember cutting off the hands and working on them separately," said Blome.
"We unveiled it on January 20 it was snowing. I didn't know if it was the last one I'd make so I wanted to do that," he said.
As Blome explains this was only the beginning. "Right after I did this - Rosa Parks' niece contacted me. She saw this in a magazine and I did Rosa Parks for Montomery, Alabama."
His sculpture would be re-cast and displayed in Dallas and Lafayette, Louisiana. He has since created famous athletes and more of MLK, which are displayed in the Bahamas, where Blome learned how much the Caribbean meant to MLK. "To feel safe, 'cause he felt at certain points in his life he was in danger. And there he felt peace, like 'I can't be hurt by anyone here.'"
Coming back to this statue is a full-circle moment for Blome, where 26 years later, he has a home in Riverwest and you might see him cleaning the statue from time to time, to protect the image of a man he never met. "I was just listening to his speeches on the way here, and they're timeless. And everything he was saying relates to what's going on in America right now."
