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Site:

The Memorial sits on both the geographical and temporal axis of American history, between the Washington Monument, in honor of the slave-owning “Father of our Country,” and the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the embattled President and “Great Emancipator.” Between and including the terms of these two presidents is the history of African-American slavery since the establishment of our republic. The Memorial is also directly to the east of the World War II Memorial, honoring those who died in the Second World War, soon after which the modern Civil Rights Movement began. Likewise, the Memorial sits on the axis addressed by Martin Luther King near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

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Threshold:

The Memorial is accessible on the aforementioned axis from either east or west. The first steps onto the Memorial from either direction are on a surface paved with Vermont granite, as hard and unyielding as the New England captains and sailors who brought their “cargo” of African Slaves to America’s shores.

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Crossing:

Water surrounds the temple-like structure of the Memorial.  Besides that structure, water is the single most salient feature of the Memorial. Just as the Africans brought in shackles to the Western Hemisphere, most of whom never survived, we must cross the waters to reach the Memorial’s center.  Whether we enter from east or west, we make a solemn processional approximately 400 feet or 200 steps, unprotected and unrelieved by shelter or shade.

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Arrival:

As we approach the Memorial’s centerpiece and step within its boundaries, we first see and pass between its columns –

Pillars on which we stand or
Barricade and cage?
Echoes of an antebellum manse or
Shelter and shadow of our common place?

Separated from the ground and roof by steel supports, each column is hewn from a single cypress from Southeastern swamps.  The roof and the floor on which the columns stand are proportioned 1:1.62 – the “golden rectangle.”

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The Light:

At the center of the roof, there is one single opening—a square of 10 by 10 feet.  For those beneath this square, there is neither shelter nor shade nor wall on which to find support.  There is no cover for one’s grief, no rescue from the final gavel of the auctioneer, no reprieve from the final separation. This is a marketplace of shame. Beneath this square of light, this square of nothingness, what can one find? A square of sky that penetrates the roof? The warmth of its sun or coolness of its rain? Nothing? Everything? Is one standing in a vacuum of despair? Or a temple of hope, a temple of dreams, a temple of salvation? Is this the place that sustained millions of African Americans through centuries of unrelenting servitude?

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Return:

To leave the central structure of the Memorial, one can either return the way one came or leave in the opposite direction. What kind of movement can this Memorial effect?  Where is the place that welcomes our return? In what direction are we moved by shared awareness of our common past? Is it the place from which we have left or a place to which we strive? Is it a place of anger, hostility and fear or a place of memory, reconciliation and healing?

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