Davidson College
Commemorative Site for Enslaved and Exploited People

Memorials are often physical markers indicating a forced conclusion to incomplete stories. As an attempt to draw a line from the past to the present, these objects and sites neglect ongoing discovery and collective identity.

The Davidson College Commemorative Site for Enslaved and Exploited People will support varied experiences — multiple journeys through an unfinished story unfolding from the present moment toward our past and future. Essential to the design are intentional voids that are suggestive of lost historical knowledge as well as literal spaces to hold references to future discoveries.

This Commemorative Experience is a campus destination and an open invitation to be an active participant in the discovery and redress of Davidson College’s relationship to the atrocity of slavery, the injustice of exploited labor, unresolved pervasive economic benefit, and generations of complicity in racist belief systems.  

At the heart of this Commemorative Experience, With These Hands, by Hank Willis Thomas, emerges as a physical manifestation of reverence and gratitude to the enslaved and exploited individuals who’s stolen labor Davidson College is indebted to. Marked with years of labor and wear, a pair of hands cradle both the earth and the visitor, creating a space for contemplation and reverence.

thresholds across
the landscape

Responding to and surrounding the artwork, an intentional site of refuge radiates outward, reinforcing the dialogue between the historic Oak and Elm buildings as it extends symbolic reach and recognition of the past/present/future relationship between the College and the Davidson community.

Dispersed across the campus landscape are elements of stone and brick, unearthed from Davidson's distant past and reconstituted as quiet witnesses gazing toward the art, beckoning visitors to the commemorative site and its subject matter.

Encounters with these elemental thresholds may be intentional or circumstantial and are purposefully volitional to allow self-guided exploration of the complex topics and themes that are presented.

  • Existing

    Well worn paths come near to and yet bypass, navigating from building to building, framing the verdant but silent lawn. There is opportunity for a greater purpose; something to share.

  • Dialogue

    Stately old buildings face one another across the lawn, their silent dialogue echoing Davidson's rich legacy of debate. The lawn lies between, asking to enter the conversation. There is much to be said.

  • Views

    Long vistas under a canopy of majestic oaks are oblique, off axis, and varied. How is one to enter this quiet lawn considering all that is buried beneath it, and all that it has to say?

  • Hands

    Two work-worn hands now rest themselves upon the lawn, cradling a sanctuary, holding us in the palm of history.  It is a place of refuge, a place to honor, commemorate, grieve, and be held accountable.

  • Connections

    Unearthed from Davidson's distant past, elements of brick, stone, and iron stand as witnesses to centuries of enslavement and exploitation. Each faces the lawn, yearning to hear what her hands now can say and inviting all of us to journey closer.

  • Paths

    This once silent lawn, now with strong voice, invites us to gather. We do, but remembrance and commemoration cannot be bound only to ceremony. They must punctuate our every day as we meander through life wondering how all this came to be, asking to be awakened to the fullness of our history.

There is opportunity for the site to become a living memorial, recognizing the lives that have intersected within the context of enslavement and exploitation on Davidson’s campus and our continued collective work in revealing identities that were stripped away to enforce slavery and exploitation.