Memorial honoring Boston's Black veterans unveiled in Roxbury's Nubian Square

Edward O. Gourdin is said to have been a man of firsts, and on Tuesday, community members and his family locked their eyes on a statue in his honor for the first time in Roxbury’s Nubian Square.

Lore Shelton-Amber , granddaughter of General Edward O. Gourdin, touches the shoe of his statue during the opening ceremony of the Gourdin African American Veterans Park in Boston. Staff Photo by Nancy Lane/Boston Herald (Tuesday,August 1, 2023).

Joseph Okafor, a private in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, stands next to the recently unveiled statue of General Edward O. Gourdin during the opening ceremony of the Gourdin African American Veterans Park in Boston. Staff Photo by Nancy Lane/Boston Herald (Tuesday,August 1, 2023).

Haywood Fennel speaks during the opening ceremony of the Gourdin African American Veterans Park in Boston. Staff Photo by Nancy Lane/Boston Herald (Tuesday,August 1, 2023).

Maria Chestnut Corman, Lore Shelton-Amber and Velicia Gourdin, granddaughters of General Edward O. Gourdin, touch his statue after its unveiling during the opening ceremony of the Gourdin African American Veterans Park in Boston. Staff Photo by Nancy Lane/Boston Herald (Tuesday,August 1, 2023).

Navy veteran Albert Williams salutes the presentation of colors during the opening ceremony of the Gourdin African American Veterans Park in Boston. Staff Photo by Nancy Lane/Boston Herald (Tuesday,August 1, 2023).

The life-size bronze monument, unveiled at General Edward O. Gourdin and African American Veterans Memorial Park, honors the man who served as commander and general of one of the Army’s last racially segregated African American battalions during World War II.

Gourdin, who died in 1966, lived a life full of accomplishments, beyond his service in the Army. A couple include being the first man in history to record a 25-foot long jump and the first African-American appointed as a Superior Court judge in New England.

Haywood Fennell, president of Veterans and Friends of Gourdin Memorial Park, said it’s important for the community to reflect on Gourdin’s legacy but also of all Black veterans.

Alongside the Gourdin statue are 10 bronze bas relief portraits of Black veterans from the American Revolution to the Iraq War.

“This day means that we are starting to rebuild that profile that veterans need to be respected, to be honored for their service, and when they come home we have services in place for them,” Fennell told a crowd that gathered at the park Tuesday.

Gourdin’s granddaughter, Velicia Gourdin, worked with the veterans and friends committee in 2021, when she “truly grasped the enormity” of her grandfather’s achievements.

“If we want Edward Gourdin to be an inspiration to our young people, we need to tell them about not only his accomplishments but also about his humanity, about the child that came before the man,” she said. “Let this space be a place of reverence, of thoughtfulness and respite, of acknowledgement and self-awareness, but also a place to dream.”

The park is a brainchild of Ralph F. Browne Jr., a veteran who sought a monument to recognize African American veterans across Boston and the Commonwealth.

City officials held a groundbreaking at the 18,000-square-foot triangular parcel, bordered by Washington Street, Malcolm X Boulevard, and Shawmut Avenue, in October 2021, but Browne’s vision came to be in 1996, his wife, Wilma Browne, recounted Tuesday.

The previous park that took up space was dedicated to Gourdin in 2010, but people oftentimes cut through it rather than somewhere they’d reflect on Black veterans’ service. The renovated park and memorial looks to change that, Browne highlighted.

“This park creates an opportunity for our community and others to know of the sacrifice, courage and struggle of Massachusetts African American veterans throughout time and the significant role they continue to play in our community,” she said.

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