Join University
of Virginia students (Memorial For Enslaved Laborers Committee) as they discuss their efforts to create a more appropriate Memorial to commemorate the enslaved laborers who constructed the University and lived on grounds during the antebellum period. An open discussion will beheld November 2nd from 7:30 to 8:30pm in Clark 107. The discussion will include a history of the project, a dialogue about its design, and comments by a guest speaker, Professor Claudrena Harold (Associate Professor, History).
A related effort is “Ucare:” University and Community Action for Racial Equality.
This project is dedicated to “helping the University of Virginia and the Charlottesville communities work together to understand the University role in slavery, racial segregation, and discrimination and to find ways to address and repair that legacy, particularly as they relate to present day disparities.”
Both groups are working on better ways to commemorate the enslaved African Americans who lived and worked at the University during the antebellum period. The photos here illustrate the current, inadequate memorial (which lies under foot in a corner of the brick pathway that surrounds the Rotunda) and two top-place finishers in a recent competition to design a better memorial.
