The Emancipation and Freedom Monument on Brown's Island, Richmond, Virginia, is a public statue installed on September 22, 2021. The monument includes two bronze statues of an emancipated man and woman with an infant. The woman is holding a piece of paper with the date January 1, 1863 which corresponds with the day U.S. president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The monument was designed by Oregon sculptor Thomas Jay Warren. Virginia senator Jennifer McClellan led the commissioning of the statue. According to McClellan, "it's the first state-funded statue celebrating emancipation in the U.S."
Composition The pedestal features the names, photos, and stories of ten Virginians who participated involved both before and after emancipation.
Pre-emancipation
Mary Bowser, former enslaved Union spy during the Civil War William Harvey Carney, soldier and formerly enslaved Gabriel, enslaved blacksmith and rebellion leader Dred Scott, enslaved man and plaintiff of Dred Scott v. Sandford Nat Turner, enslaved preacher and rebellion leader
Post-emancipation
Rosa Dixon Bowser, educator and women's rights activist John Mercer Langston, politician and academic administrator John Mitchell Jr., community activist, newspaper editor, and political candidate Lucy F. Simms, educator Wyatt Tee Walker, civil rights activist and reverend
Gallery
See also
List of monuments to African Americans
References
External links