Greensboro Parks and Recreation 2023-24 Annual Report

Greensboro Six Civil Rights Trail Marker and Mural In 1955, six Black men – led by Dr. George C. Simkins Jr. – embarked on a journey that changed sports and public facility access in Greensboro. That day the six men, now known as the Greensboro Six, defiantly played a round of golf at the then whites-only Gillespie Golf Course, leading to jail time and seven years of numerous court cases that led to the desegregation of Gillespie. Their heroism in the face of discrimination was honored with a NC Civil Rights Trail Marker dedicated on August 23, 2023, and with a mural located on the First Tee Building by nationally renowned artist Vincent Ballentine. “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots” Statue In LeBauer Park in downtown Greensboro, there’s a sculpture that carries both a physical and emotional weight. “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots,” by local artist Victoria Milstein, honors the thousands of Jewish women and children who were massacred in Liepaja, Latvia in December 1941 by the Nazis. Many of the victims were photographed in their final moments by a Nazi photographer, which is the moment Milstein portrays. The Women of the Shoah collaborated with the City to install the North Carolina memorial to women of the Holocaust. The statue was unveiled on April 18, 2023. Freedom Cornerstone On the corner of Murrow and Gate City Blvd., right on the Downtown Greenway, stands the ever-shining centerpiece, a sculpture called “Ascension” by Atlanta-based painter, sculptor, and mixed media artist Radcliffe Bailey. The piece, dedicated on February 8, 2023 and made possible through a partnership with Action Greensboro, deals with the subject of freedom and what that means to the artist. The form of the sculpture references travel taken by Bailey and his family from the South to places throughout the East Coast by train. The Freedom Cornerstone recognizes and honors the important role Greensboro played in the Underground Railroad and national Civil Rights movement through the Sit-In Movement.