You have questions about the area, and every couple of weeks we try to answer one. OKI Wanna Know is your opportunity to scratch your intellectual itch. This week, we track down a missing statue and the man it portrayed, with WVXU's Bill Rinehart.
Nancy Clark of Newport was walking along the banks of the Ohio River recently.
"I want to know what happened to the statue of James Bradley. It's a bronze statue. He was sitting along Riverside Drive in Covington," she says. "He survived the floods we had in April. But as of Memorial Day the bench is empty. So where did he go?"
Before we find out where he went, we should know where he came from.
James Bradley moved to Cincinnati from Louisiana, according to Dan Hurley with Applied History Associates.
"James Bradley was a person who was born in Africa, enslaved when he was a child, brought to the United States, and ends up working to earn money himself, and buy his own freedom."
Hurley told Bradley's story in his book "Four Cincinnatis." Bradley enrolled in the prominent Lane Seminary in Walnut Hills, with the goal of becoming a minister.
"Bradley came to Cincinnati in 1834, at the very moment that Lane Seminary decided to sponsor a debate — the Lane Seminary Debates — on the future of ending slavery in the United States."
The debates lasted for 18 days, and Bradley was the only participant who was Black, and had been enslaved.
"And we know what he said, because he published his remarks afterwards," Hurley says.
Bradley spoke in favor of abolishing slavery altogether, as opposed to sending freed slaves to a colony in Africa.
Hurley says the idea that Bradley taught himself to read and write is questionable, but he should still be considered self-educated.
"He taught himself to grasp these concepts of freedom, equality, enlightenment," Hurley says. "These were things he came to grips with and he brought that with him to the North, to Lane Seminary. He didn't have to come north to learn these things."
The Bradley statue is one of several along Covington's Riverside Drive, including John Roebling, Chief Little Turtle, and Captain Mary Greene. They were installed in 1988 to celebrate Cincinnati's Bicentennial. Hurley was a consultant for the bicentennial planning and pushed for a statue of Bradley sitting on a bench.
"He's a seminary student, so he's holding his Bible. He's looking out onto the Ohio River, which was the dividing line between the states where slavery was legal, and the states where slavery was not legal."
Hurley says he wants people to sit on the bench, and to look at the world through Bradley's eyes.
"There are really very few things in my career that I'm prouder of," he says. "And I love to drive by Riverside Drive and see somebody sitting on that bench, and looking out over to Cincinnati, looking out on the Ohio River."
Hurley says there are no photographs of Bradley that he knows about.
"We did have a model — now whether that was really Bradley or not — of his head, not his whole body. We don't know how tall he was," Hurley says. "But that's not the important thing. The important thing is what he stood for, what he accomplished, what he enunciated, and maybe what he attracted back in reaction from his audience."
So, where did the statue go?
Covington City Manager Ken Smith says there's nothing nefarious about the disappearance.
"He has not been kidnapped or being held for ransom. He was moved as we were replacing sidewalks along Riverfront Drive, and we wanted to make sure he was safe."
Bradley and the other statues along Riverside Drive were not damaged when the Ohio River crested above 60 feet in April.
"I would hesitate to guess how many times those have been under water, but as far as I know they have never been damaged," he says. "But that is a realistic possibility if a big enough tree or log were to hit those."
The sidewalk wasn't damaged by flooding. Smith says the city planned the work before the America’s River Roots festival starts in October.
After the new sidewalk is completed, James Bradley will return to the riverfront, reading his Bible.
Read more:
