DAVIDSON, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Davidson College will unveil a tribute to the enslaved and exploited workers who labored on the college’s campus with a memorial, sculpture, and plaza.

In a press release, school officials titled the project With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited. The work will feature a sculpture of two work-worn hands in an intentional place of refuge that responds to and surrounds the artwork. 

School officials say the project will take two years, with a completion date of spring 2025.

Brooklyn artist Hank Willis Thomas and architecture firm Perkins&Will will put together the memorial. The school describes the work as a bronze sculpture that will stand prominently on the lawn near the original Oak and Elm buildings and be visible from Main Street. 

The work culminates from an effort across institutions to develop a fitting memorial. The college completed “an unprecedented amount of research leading up to that project and is building a monument reflecting the unique events on its campus.”

The memorial will sit among four historic campus buildings fashioned from bricks made by enslaved persons in the mid-1800s. School founders established the school in 1837.

“When the Civil War ended slavery, some served as paid employees. Their lives remained intertwined with Davidson as its leaders supported Jim Crow laws that prevented them from voting, owning property, and getting an education,” the school said in a press release.

For more on the monument, visit the school’s website here.