After decades of planning, several hundred people remembered the impact of the abolitionist’s courage and wisdom at the Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza’s dedication Wednesday night.

“What a celebration,” said Towanda Mullins, chair of the Sojourner Truth Project, which led the plaza’s efforts. “Sojourner Truth was one of the early voices for the suffragette movement, the abolitionist movement. One of the early voices that went out and sojourned because she thought of you and me.”

The 10,000-square-foot plaza, located at 37 N. High Street in a former parking lot of the United Way of Summit & Medina, opened 173 years to the day after Truth advocated for the rights of Black women with her “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech in nearly the exact location.

Truth, who was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, traveled the country after freedom to spread her message of racial and gender equality.

Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, United Way of Summit & Medina CEO Jim Mullen, 13th District Representative Emilia Sykes and Truth’s fifth-generation grandson Cory McLiechy were several of the event’s nearly dozen speakers. Food trucks, T-shirt vendors and community groups lined High Street with booths. Vocal performances followed the Truth statue unveiling and plaza ribbon cutting.

“When I look around this plaza, I see the power of our community. I want to tell you, with all of us here in this plaza and everyone who is not here, there is nothing in her legacy and in history that we cannot do together,” Malik said.

The site is located close to the site of the 1851 Ohio Women’s Convention, where Truth spoke to a crowd outside the Universalist Old Stone Church that once sat on High Street. From where Mullins stood near the center of the plaza, she said she could throw a stone with her non-dominant hand to the place Truth once stood.

“It is easy for us to get up and speak to the community, but imagine what it was for [Truth],” Mullins said. “Never should we forget the courage it took for Sojourner Truth. This is why we have a strong legacy of women in Summit County today. It’s because of Sojourner Truth.”

The space features walkways, places to sit, high points to observe from and historical pieces to read.

A life-size, 6-foot-tall statue of Truth holding a Bible, created by Akron artist Woodrow Nash, sits in the center of the plaza. An impala lily, which is designed into the brick ground and spreads out into the space, honors Truth’s ancestors from Ghana. On the bottom of the statue, a plaque reads “Mother, activist, suffragist.”

Four pillars, each displaying large prints of the words faith, activism, power and identity, surround the statue. Quotes from Truth appear throughout the plaza. On one side of the “Faith” pillar, Truth is quoted saying: “I carry no weapon; the Lord will preserve me without weapons. I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the Truth is powerful and will prevail.”

Mullins emphasized the importance of continuing to spread the story of Truth’s legacy, mentioning the creation of the Sojourner Truth Legacy Scholarship given by the Akron Press Club. Demetrion Duvall, a senior from Buchtel Community Learning Center in Akron, received the inaugural $5,000 in April.

Creation and impact

The Summit Suffrage Centennial Committee, which created the Sojourner Truth Project-Akron, started the planning process.

The project’s cost totaled $2.5 million, led by $1 million from United Way, said Andrew Leask, associate vice president of marketing and brand management for United Way of Summit & Medina, in an email.

“Property, brick and mortar is great, but this is about the power of people,” Mullen said. “At United Way, we are 100% committed to making sure the city is a place where people feel safe, where they can gather, where they can share, where they can learn, and most importantly, they can be together and fellowship.”

Landscape architect Dion Harris from Summit Metro Parks designed the space. The Ruhlin Company completed construction, and GPD Group offered architectural assistance.

“I wanted to make every aspect mean something,” Harris said. “I wanted to mix human elements and some of the natural elements with historical elements and try to tie everything together. I want people to go and look at her sayings and look at what they really meant. We want to make sure the truth is told.”

Over 100 other donors, including the city of Akron and the Knight Foundation, contributed to the plaza’s creation.

United Way will handle upkeep of the space, Leask said. People can aid future maintenance by visiting the plaza’s donation page.

Lisa King, executive director of Summit Metro Parks and a member of the Sojourner Truth Project’s committee, worked closely with the Akron Community Foundation, along with a group of women from the committee, to raise money for the statue and, later, the plaza with the help of United Way.

An Akron resident of more than 30 years, King said the landmark is vital to the community on many levels.

“All of the things that she stood for are just as important, if not more important, today: equality and diversity and everyone having a voice and everybody having respect for one another,” she said. “Bringing that in a more tangible way for … our students in order to learn, we needed something like that in our community.”

Reporter Isabella Schreck can be reached at ischreck@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza on High Street in Akron opens