PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Years after a Portland monument of the enslaved Black man who contributed to the Lewis and Clark Expedition was vandalized, the city is nearing its return.
Portland’s Office of Arts and Culture spokesperson Kelly Knickerbocker confirmed to KOIN 6 that Todd McGrain completed a fabrication of the York bust earlier this August. Originally anonymous, McGrain is the same artist who sculpted the bust that was previously installed on a pedestal at Mt. Tabor Park’s summit in February 2021.
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The artwork was removed due to vandalism just months later, and following several instances of what former Portland Parks & Recreation Director Adena Long referred to as “racist responses.”
York, who was enslaved by William Clark, was a part of the explorer’s expedition from St. Louis, Mo., to what is now Astoria, Ore. with Meriwether Lewis. York is believed to be the first African American person to cross into North America. He was denied payment and his freedom at the end of Lewis and Clark’s journey, according to the National Park Service.
His Portland bust replaced a sculpture of late pioneer and newspaper editor Harvey Scott, which was toppled amid a series of racial justice protests. The city received the sculpture as a gift from Scott’s wife in 1933, while the York sculpture was installed “guerilla” style more than a century later…