Joseph Vaughn is frozen in time on Furman University s campus, books in hand and eyes forward in mid-stride by the James B. Duke Library.
The bronze statue, which was unveiled Friday, was modeled after a 1965 photograph of Vaughn walking up to the library shortly after he became the first Black student enrolled in the university.
When the photograph was snapped, Vaughn couldn t have known the scene would be forever memorialized 56 years later, in a plaza bearing his name. Instead of facing the library, as he does in the photo, Vaughn s statue faces outward. We very purposely placed it here in the center of campus the most prominent and heavily trafficked part of Furman, university President Elizabeth Davis said shortly before the statue s unveiling. It s facing outward, welcoming everyone just as Joe would have done.