ANDREW VAN SICKLE

I moved into the West End in July of 2014 and immediately came to love the neighborhood—the quiet, the parents walking their kids to school every morning. I really saw a different side of the West End versus what I had heard.

I was walking my dog, and on the corner of Ezzard Charles and Cutter, that first weekend I was there, five little Black kids from the neighborhood came up. They were curious about my dog, started petting the dog, and asked me about it. Then I asked them what I thought was a very obvious question: ‘Hey, do you kids know who Ezzard Charles is?’ One of the older kids pointed to the street sign, which was kind of a correct response. Then another kid eagerly said he was mayor. I had just come from Riverside Drive over in Covington, where there are plenty of statues of different Kentucky historical heroes. I looked across the street and saw a barren park with two sidewalks.

That started about a one-year journey of studying Ezzard Charles—how remarkable of an individual he was—by reading books. A man who spoke four languages, which is amazing for anyone. A guy who served his country in the Army, an entrepreneur, a lover of jazz, and a supporter of jazz musicians.

I thought, ‘There needs to be a statue. It needs to be tall, it needs to be on a plinth—an old-school, conservative statue. And it needs to be tall so that as kids walk through the park, they have something to look up to.’ After about a year and a half, I finally had something to get this going.

Over a year later—after this photo was taken at the unveiling of the statue—it’s become an area where people in the West End now go to talk to their neighbors. There are four benches there. I see people on a daily basis going there with their kids, doing boxing moves, conversing. It’s also been very well respected. That’s what gives me great pride: that I could do something like that with the community.