The Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission selected Walter Hood to create new public art commemorating the city’s role in the historic Civil Rights Movement in Public Square Park downtown. Hood’s design, Witness Walls, is a set of fragmented sculptural walls inspired by the classical sculpted friezes commemorating heroic and mythical events in antiquity. Walking among the walls visitors are placed in the center of historic moments represented by photos from the collection of the Nashville Public Library’s Civil Rights Reading Room. The installation is located on the west side of the historic Metro Nashville Courthouse, steps away from the historic April 19, 1960 student-led protest that led then-Mayor Ben West to disavow segregation of Nashville’s lunch counters.