Locating Slavery's Legacies @ University of Virginia

Memorial Object

Plaque/Marker

Pro-Civil Rights

Ingersoll, Robert G.

Stone memorializing Robert Ingersoll

The 'Walk of Fame' was created in 1929 by then president Hamilton Holt to honor significant historical figures. The memorial is located in the center of campus around Mills Lawn.

Robert Ingersoll (1833 -1899) was a late 19th-century American lawyer who successfully defended two men falsely accused during the 1880 Star Route Scandal--one of the major legal cases of the late nineteenth century, which revolved around postal routes. He was born in Dresden, New York in 1833.

Ingersoll was best known during his lifetime as an orator, who advocated for a variety of causes, including the rights of African Americans. In a speech in 1867, "An Address to the Colored People," Ingersoll asserted that "Freedom is progress—slavery is desolation, cruelty and want." He added, "The time is coming when you will be allowed to be good and useful citizens of the Great Republic. This is your country as much as it is mine. You have the same rights here that I have--the same interests that I have."

The stone was taken from the basement of the Gramercy Park Hotel, which occupies the space where Robert Ingersoll's house used to stand. The house was demolished in 1925 in order to construct the hotel.

Holt, Hamilton

A stone measuring 15.5 inches by 13.5 inches

Robert G.
Ingersoll
He knew no fear
except the fear
of being wrong
Gramercy Park,
New York

Hamilton Holt

June 1, 1938

1890-1945: Era of the Lost Cause, Jim Crow legal segregation and discrimination, and organized anti-Black racism

Hamilton Holt

Walk of Fame

Rollins College; Winter Park, Florida

Robert Green Ingersoll, Wikidata

https://thenewyorkoptimist.com/thegramercyparkhotel.html

Robert Ingersoll

Star Route Scandal