Joe Minter Talks About His Message Sculptures

In the summer of 1989, when the city of Birmingham, Alabama, announced plans for a future civil rights museum, Joe Minter became concerned. The Birmingham-based sculptor was worried that the focus would be only on the movement’s leaders, overlooking the work of those he calls its foot soldiers. Seeking to tell the whole story, he began building his African Village in America. A continuously evolving outdoor art environment, the work responds to the stories of the African American ancestors