The President’s Commission on Slavery and the University hosted a commemorative ceremony at the African-American burial site in the University Cemetery Thursday as part of this week’s Universities Confronting the Legacy of Slavery symposium.
The ceremony included remarks by local Reverends Alvin Edwards and Almeta Miller, as well as Prof. Gertrude Fraser. A poem titled “Field Work” by Brenda Marie Osbey was read aloud to commemorate the lives of the enslaved at the University. A Commission Choir sang hymns to accompany the ceremony.
“It’s unfortunate that the graves were forgotten over time, however their rediscovery … gives us an opportunity to commemorate the enslaved and free African-Americans that contributed so much to the building of the Charlottesville community,” Fraser said at the ceremony.
“They’ve done their part, and now we need to do ours,” Edwards said of the enslaved workers.
The ceremony was concluded with a candlelight procession into the cemetery.
The Commission is comprised of 26 members of the University community, including students and University professors. According to the Commission’s website, their charge is to explore and report on the University’s historical relationship with slavery, highlighting opportunities for recognition and commemoration.
In 2012, 67 graves were discovered when the University was planning to expand the cemetery, said Commission Co-Chair Marcus Martin, a professor of emergency medicine who also serves as the University's chief officer for diversity and equity.
“The bodies were unidentified because the cemetery was covered over for many years and it is believed that the people buried there were African-American servants at the University,” Martin said.
Forty percent of the graves appear to be children based on the size of the grave shafts, Martin said.
In light of the discovery, the University established the Gravesite Commemoration Committee and added sod, a fence and signage to the area.
Commission Co-Chair Kirt von Daacke, a history professor, said the Commission needs to exist because it is important for the University to investigate and understand its history.
“U.Va. used the labor of the enslaved when it opened,” von Daacke said. “There were about as many slaves as students on Grounds. … This is a much larger conversation that involves the surrounding community. You can’t separate the story from the recent past and present, and from inequality, poverty and race relations in Charlottesville.”
The Commission plans to implement future projects and events regarding slavery at the University, including memorials, an extended walking tour of the Academical Village which includes slave history, interactive media in the Rotunda and scholarships and endowments named after enslaved persons.
Another possibility is the expansion of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies.
“We are trying to establish trust and relationships with the local community through engagement forums,” von Daacke said. “We want to create something lasting through a monument; not a physical monument but something we pay forward … and what we learn has a continuing impact at the University.”
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