Twin Memorials Task Force Completes ‘Learning Journeys’ and Prepares to Engage Community | Emory University

The Twin Memorials Task Force is beginning the community engagement phase of its charge to establish twin memorials on campuses in Oxford and Atlanta that will tell the stories of those enslaved by the early rulers of Emory. A newly created website provides historical context as well as project updates and will be where Emory and community members can provide input.

Over the next few months, public meetings will be held for students, faculty, staff and neighbors, including members of the descendant community, to share concepts for the memorials. The first sessions, which will involve the communities of Covington and the City of Oxford, will begin on February 3. Atlanta-based meetings will begin two weeks later. (See block below for initial dates, times and locations.)

Ask questions, seek knowledge

Reverend Avis Williams is someone who has a head start in thinking about these issues. A four-time Emory student and a member of the descendant community associated with Emory’s origins, she recalls a statement by an architect about the forced exodus of slaves from their homelands by ship. “The only witness was water,” said the architect.

Williams — pastor, member of the Twin Memorials task force and consultant to Baskervill, the company guiding Emory’s community engagement and design process — is grateful that the testimony invites us all to participate in this process.

But she admits to having many questions about building a memorial to honor the labors of slaves, including “How can we design something that celebrates the living but honors the dead?” And as our students and faculty continue to uncover layers of Emory history, how do we commemorate something we haven’t fully grasped? »

Its openness reflects the spirit shown by the co-chairs of the Twin Memorials Task Force – Douglas A. Hicks, Dean of Oxford College and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Religion, and Gregory Ellison II, an Emory College of Arts and Science. alumnus and associate professor of pastoral and counseling at the Candler School of Theology.

In July 2021, Hicks and Ellison spoke about the value of a “learning journey”. The idea, says Ellison, was “how could we learn best practices from descendants, scholars and administrators from peer institutions so as not to duplicate some of the challenges?”

As Hicks describes it, “We wanted to hear everything we could about engaging the descendant community. They are absolutely vital.

Start in the Nation’s Capital

Their first stop was the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where they met Eric Lewis Williams, the curator of religion, who helped them understand what it took to bring this kind of institution at the national mall.

A key element: to sanctify the soil itself. “There had to be healing on these grounds before the museum was actually built,” says Ellison. Curator Williams described people from across the country coming to the proposed site to meditate and pray.

Both Ellison and Hicks are religious studies scholars. As such, says Hicks, “we are called to think about ritualizing each step to name sacred spaces and honor lost lives. The sites we visited, and which Emory will eventually create, are sacred spaces and places of pilgrimage. Raising this is important to the process.

Peer Response

The next stop was Georgetown University, where they met with senior administration officials. Prior to 2016, the university acknowledged that slaves owned by Jesuit priests were being sold to plantations in the Deep South to secure the future of the university. It took a New York Times article to highlight the issue not just for Georgetown, but for every college with a history of slavery.

The administration’s commitment to the descendant community impressed Hicks and Ellison. Already, Georgetown has provided support for small business owners and educational opportunities, with the hope that the support will be ongoing, “at the center of the university’s narrative.”

At the University of Virginia, Hicks called the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers a “marvel” for recognizing the work of some 4,000 people who built and maintained the university. Even where names are not known, the work done by these laborers — “tomato grower” or “brick mason” — is fully recognized.

The last stop was the University of Richmond, where in 2020 its president acknowledged that hundreds of slaves had worked on land on which the campus now stands, as revealed by the discovery of graveyards. The university’s Burying Ground Commemoration Committee currently engages members of its campus and descendant communities.

Reverend Williams also undertook several “learning journeys,” traveling to the University of Virginia to speak with descendants and accompanying a class taught by Hicks at the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. . Although the students on the bus that day were diverse, they were united in asking Williams, as they contemplated the powerful tale of slavery and lynchings, “How could this have happened?”

The role of Baskerville

The Twin Memorials Task Force has partnered with the firm Baskervill for their community engagement and design work. Baskervill, one of the oldest continuously operating architectural firms in the country, was established in 1897. Today’s Baskervill has carried out work related to monuments and other forms of community commemoration, including the memorial to slaves at William & Mary University as well as the Richmond Slave Trail and Place of Reconciliation. The company also participated in the Burying Ground commemoration at the University of Richmond.

Early in his life, Baskervill manager Burt Pinnock felt the consequences of landmark decisions. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, which is predominantly African American, Pinnock describes a monument in the town square erected to Confederate soldiers. The town square is ceded to the United Daughters of the Confederation “in perpetuity”.

Fresh out of college, Pinnock started as an architectural intern at Baskervill. Five years later, Pinnock had established one of two African-American architectural firms in Richmond. He returned to lead Baskervill in 2015 through a merger with his former company.

Reflecting on working with Emory, Pinnock said, “I appreciate that Dean Hicks and Professor Ellison didn’t come with an idea or a prescribed process. For me, it also reflects sincerity and openness.

Ellison notes, “While doing this work over the course of his career, Burt has at times been involved in volatile and difficult conversations. He knows what he’s doing.”

“We want to open a strong dialogue at Emory so that everyone has the opportunity to express what the concept of twin memorials means to them. The outcome should reflect the hopes of everyone who gives us feedback,” says Pinnock.