A new statue in St. Paul will honor photographer, author, filmmaker and activist Gordon Parks.
State Rep. Samakab Hussein and state Sen. Foung Hawj – both Democrats representing St. Paul – announced Sunday during a press conference at the Landmark Center that they had succeeded in securing a $250,000 appropriation for the commemoration. The funding was part of the 2025 Legacy Bill that Gov. Walz signed into law in the summer. The two legislators carried the bill in their respective chambers.
The announcement on Sunday happened on what would have been Park’s’ 113th birthday. He died in 2006 at the age of 93. In 2008 when time came to dedicate a new building for the then Unidale Alternative Learning Center, St. Paul Public Schools renamed it Gordon Parks High School in honor of his legacy.
On his birthday in November 30, 2000 HBO released a documentary about his life, Gordon Parks: Half Past Autumn.
Although a native of Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks made St. Paul his home after moving there when he was 14 following his mother’s death. Once in St. Paul he stayed with his sister Maggie and her husband, but his brother-in-law kicked him out when he was 15 making him homeless. According to an account by the Minnesota Museum of American Art, Parks then moved in with another sister Lillian, later leading to a stay at a boarding house in St. Paul.
By his early twenties he worked various jobs in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, eventually getting his start as a photographer at the state’s only Black newspapers at the time, the St. Paul Recorder and the Minneapolis Spokesman (Now the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder). He went on to become one of the nation’s greatest photographers with his 1948 photo essay on the life of a Harlem gang leader winning him widespread acclaim. The Gordon Parks Foundation, which archives his work, said the photo essay landed him a “position as the first African American staff photographer for Life.”
In 1969, he became the first Black director to make a major Hollywood studio film with the release of “Shaft” in 1971 which he directed, starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft.
“The living memorial to Gordon Parks must be complete because it honors one of America’s greatest storytellers. Gordon Parks represents the best of Minnesota, and the very best of St. Paul. It just makes sense that we build the Gordon Parks memorial here in the city where his extraordinary career began,” Sen. Hawj said.
Hawj said Parks worked hard to realize his dream and inspired generations to expand their horizons and “imagine new futures.”
The statue honoring Parks will be placed at Landmark Plaza in downtown St. Paul, adjacent to the historic Landmark Center where Sunday’s ceremony took place, and is near where a statue of a Peanuts character is located that honors St. Paul native Charles Schulz. Across the plaza is the historic St. Paul Hotel and is also less than a block from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
No artist has been commissioned yet to create the statue.
Retired WCCO anchor Don Shelby said at the press conference that there are also plans to create a permanent exhibit of Parks’ work at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. St. Paul’s Pioneer Press quoted him the next day that the exhibit will cost $75,000 a year.
Robin Hickman-Winfield, who is Parks’ grandniece, and the CEO and executive producer of SoulTouch Productions, told Mshale that the exhibit at the airport will require additional fundraising of which details will be forthcoming.
During her remarks at Sunday’s presser, Hickman-Winfield recalled a moment during a celebratory memorial at the Minnesota History Center after Parks’ passing where “I remember then Councilmember Debbie Montgomery got up and she said ‘if we can have Snoopy on Parade we should have had a statue of Gordon Parks’ (so) this has been a long journey,” adding that March 2026 will mark 20 years since the passing of Parks.
“This effort in partnership with Robin we are looking to hopefully not just take a moment to recognize the initial funding of $250,000 from the Legislature but we are seeking to leverage and partner with her to amplify Gordon Parks memory beyond this commemoration,” Minnesota Humanities Center CEO Kevin Lindsey said in his remarks.
Rep. Samakab Hussein is the first Somali American to represent St. Paul in the Minnesota House of Representatives. He is vice chair of the House Legacy Finance committee. He said he was proud to have caried the bill in the House but ultimately it was also personal to him because with a statue of Gordon Parks in the heart of downtown “I want my kids to look at downtown St. Paul and say ‘I can be like him, or I can be better, or I can try, I can dream’ and that dream we are making it a reality today.”
“I know he is watching us and we are doing what Minnesota should look like,” Hussein said.
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About Tom Gitaa Gitaa, Editor-in-Chief
Born and raised in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, Tom is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Mshale which has been reporting on the news and culture of African immigrants in the United States since 1995. He has a BA in Business from Metro State University and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was the original host of Talking Drum, the signature current affairs show on the African Broadcasting Network (ABN-America), which was available nationwide in the United States via the Dish Network satellite service. On the show, he interviewed Nobel laureates such as 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win the peace prize and heads of states. Tom has served and chaired various boards including Global Minnesota (formerly Minnesota International Center), the sixth largest World Affairs Council in the United States. He has previously served as the first Black President of the Board of Directors at Books for Africa. He also serves on the boards of New Vision Foundation and the Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium. He has previously served two terms on the board of the United Nations Association. An avid runner, he retired from running full marathons after turning 50 and now only focuses on training for half marathons.
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