Commemorations of the past are highly dynamic public engagements, which are triggered by an event that is perceived as a massive disturbance of a community’s self-understanding. In the case of America this disturbance was caused by the slavery period. A memorial is a product of time and space. The meaning of it can change over time, they move in and out of public awareness as the generations pass. Physical persistence does not guarantee continued resonance. The atmosphere of a memorial emerges not from the site itself, but from the philosophical concept poured into it, and reminding those of us with no firsthand experience of the events that exactly happened there. A memorial to persist in time and space needs to stand up symbolically and encourage people to take attitude, learn about the past and nevertheless be a place of gatherings and debates about history’s mistakes and the new attitude towards future. This memorial will be a response to the enormity of slavery. According to history, treatment of slaves was both harsh and inhumane. Whether laboring or walking about in public, people living as slaves were regulated by legally authorized violence. Slaves that worked and lived on plantations were commonly punished. They were punished with a variety of objects and instruments. The most common instrument used was the shackle. Slaves were kept in shackles to be impeded to save themselves. The memorial I chose to design merges all the ideas written above. The footprint will always remind of the pain, provoked by the shackles, which is buried in African-Americans’ hearts but will always exist under the name of memory. I chose to represent the left foot because from now on we will step with the right one, we will take the right decisions and try to avoid the mistakes done in the past. The shackle is broken and open, leaving the leg free. It is half buried in the ground to represent that America does not want this anymore as a punishment method. The chain will always signify something that is not allowed, something that will make you suffer. However, this is not the case anymore; due to this the chain is not there at all. Slaves had to carry with them a heavy metal sphere. I represented the sphere through a void. This is a commemoration of something that does not exist anymore. The emptiness of the space will be filled with feelings and emotions rather than with objects or materials. The absence of the sphere would be seen through a glass roof where a couple of words will be written: ‘If you are here you are closer to understanding.’