Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Virginia Military Institute

Memorial Object

Plaque/Marker

Pro-Civil Rights

Lewis, Sinclair

Stone memorializing Sinclair Lewis

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.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist and Nobel Prize winner in 1930, the first American to be recognized with the award. Raised in Sauk Center, Minnesota, he endured a challenging childhood that saw the death of his mother and an attempt to be a drummer-boy in Spanish-American War at thirteen. In 1903, he enrolled at Yale, where he cultivated a passion for writing. Following graduation in 1908, he began writing short stories that eventually grew into larger novels beginning in 1912. For the next 40 years Lewis produced a number of social commentaries through the medium of novels on topics including religion, consumerism, politics, morality, and race.

Lewis's novel "Kingsblood Royal" (1947) centers on a middle-class White man discovering that he has some African American ancestry. This leads to his exploration of African American life and the realization of the systemic racism of 20th-century America. The novel was not received well, with the characters and the plot both receiving criticism as unbelievable and superficial. However, as author, Jennifer Delton wrote, "What was new about Kingsblood Royal was that it sought a more meaningful place for white people in black peoples' redemptive narrative."

The stone was taken from Sauk Center and integrated into the Walk of Fame in 1937 by Hamilton Holt.

10" by 12" rectangular stone from Sauk Center, MN

Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, Sauk Center, Minn

L. W. Hall

Holt, Hamilton

October 1937

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

Rollins College

Walk of Fame

Rollins College; Winter Park, Florida

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123469

"Sinclair Lewis in Walk of Fame: List of Names, 1948," Walk of Fame, Department of College Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Fl.

Lewis Autobiography

Kingsblood Royal

Lewis Biography