Uncle Jack was a bronze statue of an elderly black man created to memorialize the accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans in nineteenth century Louisiana. It was the brainchild of Jackson L. Bryan, born in Mansfield, Louisiana, in 1868, who had close lifelong associations with African-Americans and became a successful cotton planter, mill owner, and banker in Natchitoches. In 1926, Bryan decided to erect a statue dedicated to the faithful service of black people who had played an instrumental role in building Louisiana, and he selected Hans Schuler, Sr., to sculpt and cast it in bronze for $4300.00. Schuler, a graduate of the Maryland Institute's Rinehart School of Sculpture in Baltimore and the first American sculptor to win a Gold Medal at the 1901 Paris Salon, was known as the Monument Maker, and Uncle Jack became one of his best known works. The sculpture was erected in 1927 at the foot of Front Street in Natchitoches, where it stood in a small park and became a major tourist attraction and a unique memorial to nineteenth century African-American workers. Local residents called it Uncle Jack for Mr. Bryan, and it was also known as the Good Darky; the original plaque dedicated it to the arduous and faithful services of the good darkies of Louisiana. Even before it was cast, the statue provoked controversy, as some believed white citizens of Natchitoches would not accept a monument dedicated to Blacks, and Jo Bryan warned his brother in a June 15, 1926, letter to secure town council acceptance and cautioned that many white citizens would not tolerate the town's only statue being dedicated to a Negro. Bryan continued anyway, and the statue was generally accepted and later beloved by many in the white community in Natchitoches and beyond, with newspapers such as The New York Times praising its erection, but many African-Americans did not view it as a positive memorial. In 1968, a group of Blacks actively protested its public presence, and amid adverse publicity, changing times in the 1960’s, and vandalism, city officials decided to remove it to avoid racial troubles. Mrs. Jo Bryan Ducournau, daughter of the late Jack Bryan, opposed the removal and initially stopped workmen after they had wrapped a chain around the statue, but it was eventually taken down and stored on her family farm. In 1972, LSU Chancellor Cecil G. Taylor, Ag Center Director Johnny Cox, and Steele Burden learned of the statue and proposed that it be donated to the LSU Rural Life Museum; despite eight other requests, including one from the Smithsonian Institute, Mrs. Ducournau chose the LSU Rural Life Museum, which acquired the sculpture from the Bryan-Ducournau family in 1974.