In a life that bridged two centuries, Edward O. Gourdin reached pinnacles in sports, law, and the military while smashing racial barriers to become the Massachusetts National Guard’s first Black brigadier general and the first Black and Indigenous jurist to serve on the state’s Superior Court.
Now a decades-long effort to transform the Roxbury park that bears Gourdin’s name into a memorial to him and Black veterans — many who fought for democratic principles denied them at home — has reached a major milestone.
On Thursday, the city plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony at the Nubian Square park for a broad renovation project that will feature an 8-foot bronze cast statue of Gourdin and 10 bas-reliefs representing Black people’s contributions to US military efforts since the Revolutionary War.
“Black veterans really represent the ultimate sacrifice,” said Tanisha Sullivan, Gourdin’s grandniece and president of the Boston branch of the NAACP. “They have fought to defend democracy, access, and inclusion in far lands knowing that at home they didn’t have those same rights and enduring discrimination while they were serving in the military.”
Gourdin was born in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1897, one of nine children. He was valedictorian at his segregated high school. After graduation, he studied for a year in Cambridge and then enrolled at Harvard University, according to a biography. In 1921, he leaped into history, becoming the first athlete to long jump 25 feet during a meet at Harvard Stadium. Three years later, having just taken the bar exam, he won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
Back in Massachusetts, however, Gourdin struggled to get hired.
“Even though he was a Harvard Law School graduate, he still had a hard time getting a job because of the color of his skin,” said Massachusetts National Guard Brigadier General Leonid E. Kondratiuk, a historian.
Gourdin was placed on active duty during both world wars, Kondratiuk said, but wasn’t deployed overseas. After World War II, he commanded the 272d Field Artillery Battalion, a segregated Massachusetts National Guard unit.
“Gourdin was a very good man,” said Edward G. Tyler, 91, of Dorchester, who served under Gourdin. “You could see in his mannerisms that he was a first-class gentleman.”
Wilfred M. Lawrence, 92, of Dorchester, reported to Gourdin when he joined the Guard in 1948.
“He stood up straight, spoke his mind, and we followed what he said,” Lawrence said.
The unit was integrated during a deployment to Germany in 1952, four years after Harry Truman ended segregation in the US military and three years after state lawmakers did the same for the National Guard.
Gourdin left the unit in 1950 when he was promoted to colonel and later retired as a brigadier general, the first Black soldier to attain that rank in the Massachusetts National Guard.
“He was the father of all Black National Guardsmen,” Kondratiuk said.
As a lawyer, Gourdin worked as a federal prosecutor and later as a judge at the Roxbury Municipal Court and Superior Court, becoming the first Black and Indigenous justice to serve in that role when he was named to the bench in 1958.
He died in 1966 at age 68. A portrait of him, unveiled in 1997, hangs in Suffolk Superior Court.
The effort to honor Gourdin and other Black veterans at the park dates back decades, outliving some of the project’s main advocates.
The family of Ralph Browne Jr., a veteran of the 272d Field Artillery Battalion, carried on his campaign for the memorial after he died in 2012.
Browne’s daughter, Rachelle, cited words from author Wes Jackson: “If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.”
“In my dad’s case, he visualized this park in 1997, and here we are in 2021, just halfway to the mark,” she said.
Artist Fern Cunningham-Terry who died last year, sculpted the statue as her health declined, with the help of artists Karen Eutemey and Jeffrey Buccacio. Cunningham-Terry also created the Harriet Tubman sculpture in the South End.
“She went at it right until the end,” said Eutemey, who is also Cunningham-Terry’s cousin.
The city has put nearly $1.3 million toward the park, which is expected to be completed next year. A community group, the Veterans and Friends of Gourdin Memorial Park, has been raising money to pay for the artwork and establish educational programming for schools and visitors.
“We would like to create a repository of information about African-American veterans,” said Bruce Bickerstaff, a veteran and the group’s president.
The organization also hopes the memorial will attract visitors to the neighborhood.
“This is going to be a touchstone for the redevelopment of the Nubian Square area right in Roxbury,” said Haywood Fennell Sr., an Army veteran and member of Veterans and Friends of Gourdin Memorial Park.
Gourdin’s grandson, Edward Gourdin III, 45, recalled stories his sister and father shared about the grandfather he never met.
“He was very intelligent but made you feel like the smartest person in the room,” said Gourdin, who lives in Fort Mill, S.C. “As a judge, he was able to scold in a way that the person would thank him.”
Gourdin said his grandfather was someone who achieved greatness without seeking attention. The statue and park will help “preserve a legacy for someone that a lot of people don’t know,” he said.
“It’s nice to know that you can excel in silence and you can be recognized down the road,” he said. “His legacy remains.”
Jeremiah Manion of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.
