U.N. Slavery Memorial
proposal
2012 corten steel walls with lit informational panels 16'r x 32' x8'
The tragic weight of the horror of slavery is represented by two curving metal walls that are each eight feet high, 16 feet in radius, and approximately five inches thick. The two walls are symbolic of the two parts of a shackle commonly used on people from Africa in the Atlantic slave trade to restrain movement. This memorial focuses on the end to the slavery caused by the Transatlantic Slave Trade as represented by the large-scaled symbolic shackle being broken in half. It has educational displays on the interior walls that examine how the effects of slavery, and the discrimination that followed, have created a disparity between races in education, living conditions, and economic opportunities to this day. Hope for future generations is represented by the lifting up and outward of the two halves of the large shackle shaped walls. The combined shackle, remembrance plaza, and reflection pool honors the memory of an African people “who died and those who have shared their struggle.”