Memorial Artwork

Sculptural Memorial

Reparative

Black students who made history at William & Mary in the twentieth century

Carter, Miriam Johnson

Briley, Lynn

Ely, Karen

Strafer, Janet Brown

Engs, Michael

Willis, Hulon

Travis, Edward Augustus

Blayton, Oscar

Bailey, Jr., James Bernard

Sculpture dedicated to Michael Engs, Janet Brown Strafer, Karen Ely, Lynn Briley, James Bernard Bailey, Jr., and Hulon Willis

The sculpture was created by Steve Prince, director of engagement and distinguished artist in residence at the Muscarelle Museum of Art, in coordination with Michael Gaynes, a lecturer of art and art history. It features a Sankofa bird symbol, which originates in Ghana and represents looking at the past in order to move forward.

The bird in the sculpture is looking behind it “because it looks back at all the things which it came from and all the things that it went through,” said Prince.

“The sculpture and garden stand as an acknowledgment of the contribution of past and current Black students, faculty and staff,” said Professor Emeritus Jacquelyn McLendon L.H.D. ’21, founding director of the university’s Black studies program and chair of the committee responsible for the 50th Commemoration of the First African American Students in Residence in 2017-2018.

sculpture made of stone, steel, and bronze; illuminated at night, 4' x 4' x 10'.

Travis, Willis, Carter, Briley, Brown, Ely, Balyton, Bailey, Moore, Engs

It was a very good year to be young, and alive, and Blacker even than you knew.
Brenda Marie Osbey

Prince, Steve

May 2021

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William & Mary

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Osbey reads her commemorative poem