The story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, is back in the news thanks to the big Hollywood production “Till,” which is in theaters now. But did you know that Denver once had the country’s only physical monument to Till?

According to Westword, a local bowling alley owner named Herman Hamilton had the idea for a tribute back in the ’70s. He worked with a sculptor and the city to commission a statue depicting Till walking with Martin Luther King Jr. that was installed in City Park in time for the country’s bicentennial in 1976.

Controversial from the start due to the disproportionately large size of MLK Jr.’s head, the statue was removed and eventually replaced. The original stands today at the Friendly Harbor Community Center in Pueblo after bouts of vandalism, defacement, and various stints gathering mothballs in storage.