Horace King led quite the life. Soon visitors to the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area 20 minutes outside Atlanta will be able to read/learn more about this life with a new sign about King’s life and achievements that is being unveiled on February 28 from 3-4pm. The new sign will be in front of the Horace King memorial bridge, inspired by King’s signature bridge design, roughly a half-mile down from Murphy Candler Elementary along the paved PATH.
“Despite his significance in Georgia history, Horace King remains largely unknown to many,” said Evonne Blythers, a former park ranger and Horace King enthusiast. “Signage about the King family often omits their African American background or there’s a lack of signage altogether, which is a glaring omission. However, it gives me hope that measures are being taken today to rectify this situation.”
Born into enslavement on June 8, 1807, in what is now Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Horace King would go on to defy several odds and become the exception to the rule for what was possible for Black men of the Antebellum, Reconstruction, and early Gilded Age periods. Following the death of his enslaver, he was sold to bridge builder and contractor John Goodwin, who noticed the architectural genius that King possessed and decided to utilize that skill in combination with his own to create new opportunities for the pair. King would buy his freedom his Goodwin, eventually eclipsing him as a master builder. At one point, most of the major rivers in Georgia and Alabama and South Carolina were bridged by King. His double cantilevered spiral staircases still stand inside the Alabama state capitol building.
For the sign unveiling on Wednesday, February 28, there will be a welcome and refreshments followed by a leisurely “museum-walk” to the bridge (0.5 mi). Along the way we will stop at short intervals to hear about King’s life. At the bridge there will be a short presentation followed by the sign…
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