South Carolina African-American History Monument (Columbia, South Carolina)

South Carolina African-American History Monument (Columbia, South Carolina)

Subject (Topic)
African Americans--History
Enslaved persons--Emancipation
Public art
Public sculpture
Slave ships
Slavery--South Carolina
South Carolina--Columbia

Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

Two semicircular gray granite walls, inlaid with twelve bronze panels illustrating 300 years of African American history, frame an obelisk and pedestal. The twelve scenes of African American history include images of the Middle Passage, an African American family on an auction block, enslaved laborers working in a field, men and women celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, the Jim Crow era, the Great Migration, and images of contemporary African Americans’ important contributions to engineering, law education, sports, politics, and space exploration. At the base of the monument’s obelisk are four rubbing stones from regions of Africa where people were captured - Senegal, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Congo, and Ghana. In front of the memorial, Dwight included a bronze cast of the famous print of the British slave ship Brookes (1787).

Dwight, Ed, 1933-

Photograph: Flickr, "African-American History Monument -- State Capitol Grounds Columbia (SC) 2012" by Ron Cogswell, CC BY 2.0

March 29, 2001

African American History Monument Commission; South Carolina Arts Commission; State House Committee; Citizens' Advisory Committe; Design Committee; Fundraising Committee; private donors

South Carolina State House, 1100 Gervais Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29201, United States

JPEG

English

Visual Arts-Sculpture

South Carolina State House Grounds, 1100 Gervais Street, Columbia, South Carolina, 29201, United States

Bronze plaque on front of monument:
African American History Monument
Dedicated - 2001
Ed Dwight - Sculptor

Bronze plaque on back of monument:
South Carolina African-American History Monument
Dedicated to the people of South Carolina

Monument Commission
Chairman
Senator Glenn F. McConnell
Vice-Chairman
Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter
Senator John E. Courson
Senator Robert Ford
Senator Darrell Jackson
Senator McKinley Washington, Jr.
Representative Daniel T. Cooper
Representative James S. Klauber
Representative John L. Scott, Jr.
Honorable Jesse Washington, Jr.

State House Committee
Senator J. Verne Smith, Chairman

Citizen's Advisory Committe
Dr. Mac Arthur Goodman, Chairman

Design Committee
Dr. Terry K. Hunter, Chairman
Dr. Henry G. Michaux
Mr. James Wakefield

Fundraising Committee
Governor Jim Hodges, Honorary Chairman
Mr. John S. Rainey, Chairman
Ms. Juanita W. Brown, Co-Chairman
Mr. E. Perry Palmer, Co-Chairman

Obelisk and pedestal: 276 in. (701.04 cm)

Granite; Bronze

Botsch, Carol Sears. “The African-American Monument.” African Americans and South Carolina: History, Politics, and Culture. University of South Carolina-Aiken. Accessed April 15, 2019. https://polisci.usca.edu/aasc/African-AmericanMonument.htm (site discontinued).

Davenport, Jim. “A Slave Memorial Now Stands Amid State's Tributes to Confederacy.” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2001. Accessed April 15, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-25-mn-42494-story.html.

Renée Ater

Sculpture

Obelisk and pedestal: 276 in. (701.04 cm)