Bill Ford Jr. honors city, father with civil rights mural

Bill Ford Jr.'s latest civil rights mural is as much a tribute to his father as it is to his city.

Ford unveiled the mural commemorating the anniversaries of the Selma march and bus boycott in front of Rufus A. Lewis Library on Mobile Highway on Thursday.

“In my own way, this is an homage not only to the city, but to my father,” Ford said of his father, also an artist, after the unveiling. "All the things I do in Montgomery concerning art is in some way trying to pay my dad back for exciting me when I was a little boy. Whatever I asked him to draw he would draw it."

Ford grew up a literal stone’s throw away from the library on Caffey Drive.

In seeing his work immortalized so close to his childhood home, the moment was not lost on Ford.

“I could probably take a rock and hit my house (from here),” Ford said. “It’s kind of ironic and so rewarding that 60-something years after I was born on that street I have a piece of my work right around the corner. This is the area I grew up in. It’s really gratifying to me to see how everything’s come around full circle.”

Ford and others, including Montgomery County Commission Chairman Elton Dean and Mayor Todd Strange, spoke fondly of Ford Sr..

However, it was Ford’s day as his mural commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma march and 60th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott was unveiled.

“I know you treasure the legacy of your dad, but you are leaving a legacy of your own,” Strange said. “Bill Ford is truly a talented and gifted individual, and we are so honored he is sharing that talent with the totality of Montgomery.”

The image is printed on metal and separated into four frames.

The first depicts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. standing outside the Cleveland Avenue bus with the civil rights leader’s words emblazoned beside him: “Democracy transformed from thin paper to thick action is the greatest form of government on Earth.”

In the second panel, the 60th anniversary of the bus boycott is commemorated, followed the 50th anniversary of the Selma march in the third panel. In the last panel, the Edmund Pettus Bridge sits in the background behind President Barack Obama at a podium. The president, his family and other elected officials are seen marching at the bottom of the frame, a memory of the president’s visit to Selma last year.

“Martin Luther King’s whole vision and whole movement that he started ended in the election of the first African-American president of the United States,” Ford said on the importance of including Obama.

Ford also included a quote from President Obama: “…Nonviolent change is possible… Love and hope can conquer hate.”

“I thought that was pretty significant,” Ford said.

Ford initially began speaking to Montgomery City-County Public Library System Director Juanita Owes about the mural last year. A year later, Owes said she was pleased with the final product.

“All last year we talked about it,” Owes said. “When he presented me something on paper, I was very pleased with what he presented to me. This unveiling is very sentimental. It brings together a lot of hard work.”

Dean spoke of how west Montgomery is the “heart” of the city and the mural is evidence of what needs to happen on the west side of the city.

After a year of celebrating the anniversaries of two the most impactful events in Alabama and United States history, the mural allows those moments of triumph to linger and last.

For Ford, the unveiling hit even closer to home.

“It’s my way of trying to continue my dad’s legacy,” Ford said. “He gave me my life, my name, my occupation. What else is there left? Bill Ford Sr., this is for you.”