Design work on Fort Monroe’s African Landing Memorial moving forward

HAMPTON — A Fort Monroe memorial honoring the first documented Africans who landed in English North America in 1619 is still a few years away from completion, but officials say progress has been made on design work.

The memorial is slated to be located on Fenwick Road near the state’s marker designating the first Africans’ arrival. Next year, the Fort Monroe Authority plans to begin work on landscaping on the surrounding memorial park and plaza and parking improvements along Fenwick Road. Officials hope for the landscaping to be completed in 2025 and the memorial by 2028.

Last week, Fort Monroe Authority Executive Director Glenn Oder described the memorial as “the most important” project Fort Monroe is working on. Although the Fort Monroe Authority is the landowner and project manager, Oder stressed the project has been a collaborative effort with numerous nonprofits and community input.

The idea for the project came from local nonprofit Project 1619 Inc., which wanted to have a memorial in Hampton to honor the landing of the first enslaved Africans brought to present-day Fort Monroe.

“The vision for the memorial is that it will become a global pilgrimage site for people around the world to visit,” said Project 1619 founder Calvin Pearson.

Artist Brian R. Owens, commissioned in 2019 to create the memorial, said it was a bit of a challenge to determine how to tell the story but that the broad strokes of the design are primarily complete.

With the conceptual designs done, he is now in the project’s second design phase, which will show what he promises to deliver. He said the design he is working on must be realistic about the project’s size and scope and include a fabrication plan and a budget. Regarding the work, he said, “we’re off to a great start.”

“We’ve gone through many, many little redesigns, as we determined, in real-time, how to make that happen, how to come up with a design that is thoughtful, and historically correct and interesting to look at and compelling, and yet feasible and buildable,” Owens said. “And we figured that out.”

The memorial will include three sculptures. The most prominent feature is the 9-foot-tall, 34-foot-long relief wall, which depicts the landing story. The story will be told from right to left, starting with the first Africans’ life in Angola, their assault and capture, journey during the Middle Passage, landing at present day Fort Monroe, and subsequent trade as property into slavery.

A second bronze sculpture will depict Anthony and Isabella, a couple documented among the first Africans, holding their baby, William Tucker. The infant was recorded as the first African birth in the Virginia colonies, in 1624. A third element is an arc sculpture with a flame symbolizing hope.

“What I’d like people to do is to be emotionally moved by what they see with their eyes in some way,” Owens said.

He hopes the sculptures make people reflect and learn more about the history of slavery and the first Africans.

“As we examine these human beings, we examine ourselves — our own propensity to slide down slippery slopes and to abuse each other,” Owens said.

The exact timeline for the sculpture is not set in stone, but Owens described it as a “gigantic undertaking.”

Meanwhile, Francoise Bonnell, Fort Monroe’s director of museums, education, and interpretation, said work is underway on finding the best way to provide interpretations and context to the memorial so people know what they are looking at. Possibilities include signs, an audio tour, QR codes or information pop-ups on phones. She said the memorial and the interpretations would be ADA-compliant.

Fort Monroe received $6 million in federal funding for the project and $500,000 in state funding. Oder said Fort Monroe expects the project to be within budget but added, “we would welcome more money” in the event of overruns or ongoing expenses.

“The more money we have, the more we can do,” Oder said. “You know, it would really be nice to have an endowment for the memorial, something to make sure that it will always be cleaned and taken care of [and that] there will always be educators.”

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com.