A full-body likeness of Beauford now graces the landscape of his hometown of Knoxville, TN.
On April 16, 2026, four new bronze sculptures honoring historic Black figures from Knoxville were unveiled at Covenant Health Park, the city's new multi-purpose sports stadium.
Beauford's was one of them.
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center
Beck Cultural Exchange Center President and City of Knoxville Historian of African American History Rev. Reneé Kesler played an integral role in the creation and placement of the works. She graciously granted Les Amis an exclusive interview to discuss the project.
Rev. Kesler explained that she commissioned these statues and seven additional ones that honor Knoxville's Negro Baseball team, the Giants, as a means of acknowledging and honoring the history of the area.
The new stadium is located a couple of miles from the park where the Giants played from 1920-1932. Situated within the Magnolia Avenue Warehouse District, just east of Knoxville's Old City, it was built on land that was formerly home to a vibrant Black community and essentially razed in the name of urban renewal.
Working with sculptor Brian Hanlon and various stakeholders over the past 5-6 years, Rev. Kesler determined who would be represented in the statues, how they would be represented, and where the finished works would be placed. She elected to have Beauford represented with a likeness of one of his more iconic portraits of his mentee, James Baldwin.
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center
(c. 1945-1950) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Though all were commissioned at the same time, the first seven sculptures were unveiled when the stadium opened last April. Last week's unveiling was timed to coincide with the opening of the Delaney Building, an exclusive, mostly residential complex.
The sculptures that commemorate Black baseball history at Covenant Health Park represent Jerry Benjamin, William M. Brooks, Claude “Steel Arm” Dickey, Forrest “One Wing” Maddox, William Nathaniel “Nat” Rogers, “Big Jim” Tugerson, and Payne Avenue Little League.
The four figures honored by the works unveiled last week are painter Ruth Cobb Brice, singer and “Queen of the Blues” Ida P. Cox, writer and poet Nikki Giovanni, and Beauford.
At the base of each statues is a QR code that allows you to learn more about the individuals represented in the works.
Rev. Kesler said that the Beck Cultural Exchange Center worked in close collaboration with Randy Boyd, the Boyd Family Foundation, Boyd Sports, and the Knoxville Smokies baseball team to move the sculpture project forward. She explained that ever since the renovation of the area began, Beck came in as a partner with the responsibility to hold onto and reclaim names and spaces to preserve its history.
Rev. Reneé Kesler, Derek Spratley, court-appointed administrator
of the Beauford Delaney estate, and Jenny and Randy Boyd
with Beauford Delaney statue
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center
Covenant Health Park serves as the home park for the Smokies as well as the city's Division III soccer team, One Knoxville SC. It opened on April 15, 2025.
The new Delaney building overlooks the stadium.
Image courtesy of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center
Click on the links below to read previous Les Amis articles about the Delaney Building:
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