91 Unveils Plans for Memorial to Honor the Enslaved and Exploited
March 29, 2023
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- Mark Johnson
With These Hands by Hank Willis Thomas emerges at the heart of the site, creating space for contemplation and reverence.
Competition concept rendering by Perkins&Will in collaboration with Hank Willis Thomas.
Dedication Ceremony
On Oct. 23, 2025, hundreds of people gathered between buildings built from bricks bearing the thumbprints of enslaved laborers for a ceremony dedicating a new memorial in their honor. With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited serves as a place to remember and reflect upon those whose labor helped build the college and serve its students and faculty.
The enslaved people who made the bricks for 91әs original buildings, farmed its land, and served its faculty and students nearly two centuries ago received no acknowledgment for their work.
When the Civil War ended slavery, some served as paid employees. Their lives remained intertwined with 91 as its leaders supported Jim Crow laws that prevented them from voting, owning property and getting an education.
91 can never fully atone for that past. However, the college believes these public efforts will help take another step toward reconciling with it. Today, President Doug Hicks announced plans for a memorial to honor the enslaved and exploited people whose labor helped build the college.
The memorial With These Hands will encourage reflection and conversation, says 91 President Doug Hicks 90. He envisions a place for pilgrimage, a sacred site that can encourage visitors to explore the meaning of membership in our community.
91 has selected artist Hank Willis Thomas to create the sculpture With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited. The concept was developed in collaboration with the North Carolina practice of global architectural firm Perkins&Will, who conceived an intentional place of refuge that responds to and surrounds the artwork. The bronze sculpturetwo large, work-worn handswill stand prominently on the lawn near the original Oak and Elm buildings and be visible from Main Street.
This is a very kind of important time in American history where we are actually learning how to reconcile with the past, especially not the prettiest and most honorable parts of the past, Thomas said. And the way we do that in education, the way we do that in storytelling in the media, but also in physical space, is really unprecedented, right? Where we are looking unflinchingly back in the mirror of American history. And to have a collegeto be taking a step like this, so unflinchingly, and I think its almost a call to action for cities and colleges and universities and libraries across the country to really acknowledge the lives that were sacrificed and exploited so that we get to have the luxuries that we do today.
Artist Hank Willis Thomas has created a sculpture meant for this moment in American history; when colleges, universities and other American institutions are reconciling with the least honorable parts of their pasts.
Its a place of refuge, a place of honor, to commemorate, to grieve, to celebrate and to be accountable, college Trustee and Commemoration Committee Chair Virgil Fludd 80 said. The hands transcend 91, from its beginnings to today to the future. They could be the hands used to construct Oak and Elm. They could be the hands that took care of the first students at 91. They could be the hands that took care of me in 1976 or could be the hands used to take care of students today and in the future.
The creation of the memorial With These Hands is another step toward reconciling with the past. 91 Trustee and Commemoration Committee Chair Virgil Fludd 80 says its time to recognize and honor the enslaved persons whose labor helped to build the college.
The memorial comes as the college examines a history of slavery and discrimination shared by many institutions across the United States. In 2020, then-President Carol Quillen publicly apologized for the colleges past actions. 91әs Commission on Race and Slavery, whose research preceded the apology, issued recommendations that include a memorial.
Whats important is to pay homage and to give credit to them, Fludd said. There are buildings named for people who did less, not only at 91 but around the country. Honoring the people who created the institution we endearthat we care so much aboutis the very least we could do.
Importance of Commemoration
At the University of Alabama, Hilary Green created the Hallowed Grounds project, which includes a walking tour of slaverys history on that campus. She first came to 91 as a visiting professor in 2020 and worked closely with the race and slavery commission.
Shes now the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies specializing in African American history, the Civil War and Reconstruction. She and her students have researched the Black people first enslaved and later employed by the college. Theyve explored their humanity, filling out details of their lives through public records, cemetery visits, letters and diaries.
The memorial to the enslaved and exploited will draw people to a space with an often unacknowledged history. James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies Hilary Green says the memorial will create space for engagement with 91әs history in a location that is sacred.
When I first walked across this campus, I could tell where slavery existed, its like the air changed in that space, Green said. By putting the memorial where enslaved people labored, we are also recognizing the grounds that they helped shape, and the landscapes they maintained.
We must acknowledge that honestly and truthfully, to hear the voices of people who came before us and who were far too long excluded. Commemoration is an apology; its about acknowledging that this was wrong so that we can build a better present and future.
91 has been especially thoughtful in its actions, said Perkins&Will architect Malcolm Davis.
The planned memorial to the enslaved and exploited on the 91 campus will be close to Main Street and accessible to the citizens of 91 whose ancestors may have labored at the college, says Malcolm Davis of architectural firm Perkins&Will.
Other institutions are embarking on similar endeavors, but I give 91 a lot of credit for the way theyve gone about this as a process, Davis said. There is something to be learned by the way 91 has proceeded. Engaging alumni and others to be part of the planning is a fantastic way to come at this work. We have felt that sincerity from the alumni organizations and from the artistic community. Theyve been very intentional about wanting to make sure that the teams are diverse, and that everyone sitting at the table is authentic.
Theres so much support for getting this right.
What The Memorial Means
The College of William & Mary took on a similar accounting process more than a decade ago and last year unveiled its memorial to the enslaved workers who once toiled there. History Professor Jody Allen is the Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project, which builds bridges between William & Mary and African American communities through research, programming, and supporting students, faculty and staff.
Allen is an expert on commemoration efforts across the United States.
Acknowledgement is extremely important, Allen said. We must acknowledge them as human beings with lives and desires and dreams. Their contributions helped build this country and these institutions. They need to be remembered. When we fail to acknowledge their history, and the history of slavery, we allow the country to be miseducated.
While an increasing number of colleges have recognized that they benefitted from slavery, she said, only a few have built memorials. Besides William & Mary, others include the University of Virginia, UNC-Chapel Hill and Brown University. Nationally, commemoration efforts have earned support and met with backlash.
Theres a concern that learning African American history will damage our countrynothing is further from the truth, Allen said at William &Marys memorial ceremony last May. Weve tried ignoring it and look how that worked out. If this country is to move forward, we must tell the truth. This country can be redeemed but it must remember.
"We will no longer ignore the past because we understand willful ignorance hinders progress."
More to Be Done
91әs first Black students came from Africa during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and were followed, in very small numbers, by Black Americans. While some students pressured the college to diversify, others objected to integration.
Fludd, a South Carolina native, was one of the few Black students on campus when he arrived in 1976. He led the nearly two-year process that culminated in the selection of With These Hands.
Fludd said he often felt like he didnt belong and considered leaving. That hes now a college trustee, he said, represents how much 91 has evolved.
91 back then was a far different place, Fludd said. It was not the warm, welcoming diverse environment that it is today.
Artist Tyler Yvette Wilson 14, describes her 91 experience as positive, and the college community as supportive. She now teaches at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. Her art often focuses on the exploitation of Black and Brown communities and has appeared in multiple public venues, including on highway billboards in Baltimores art district.
Wilson, a college Art Collection Advisory Committee member, served on the commemoration jury. She said the college has come a long way in diversifying its exhibits and striving for equitable representation. Choosing from the five finalists was difficult.
These are artists Im a huge fan of, Wilson said. It was so cool to be in a room and meet my artistic heroes.
The biggest influence, she said, was the profound impact that Thomass work had on several others in the group.
That was enough for me, she said, adding, I adore his work and Im excited to have an artist of his stature creating the monument at 91.
Tackling important issues through public art can invite controversy, and many institutions shy away from it, Wilson said.
What 91 is doing is very courageous. You see a lot of colleges put something on a website and thats the end of it. To make a declaration of this magnitudeof this permanenceand invest in it financially is huge, Wilson said. This is not performative, its taking real steps to rectify what happened in the past, and that takes a lot of guts.
Lifelong 91 resident Bernetta Graham also served on the jury that recommended Thomass sculpture. She hopes it will prompt discussions about what transpired and inspire new efforts to help Black residents who still struggle from the legacy of slavery and discrimination.
This is a start, Graham said. I liked the idea of the Black hands, because Black hands built the college. Its important that its open to the community. So many of our children dont know about slavery and dont understand what was done to our people. Hopefully this will be educational, to let them know where they came from, and where they can go in the future.
Fludd said he wants the memorial to be a lasting symbol to remember the colleges past, and its promise going forward.
I want it to be a boomerang, not just a one-time experience, but where people feel compelled to learn more, Fludd said. The college should feel like its made a tremendous statement, that it has brought to light things that were not exposed or revealed in the past and that theres more work to be done.
This is not the end.
