May 26, 2021, the first shovel broke ground for the Lemon Project’s Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved. While many students recall the year-long preparation for the Hearth, which is located south of the Sir Christopher Wren Building, it has been in the works for far longer.
The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation’s main mission is to foster and contribute to scholarship on the 328-year relationship between African Americans and the College of William and Mary. The project focuses on studying the College’s history and legacies of slavery, creating a safe space on campus for students of color and forging bridges between the campus and the greater Tidewater community area.
“The ground-breaking of the memorial serves as a testament to the 10+ years of hard work that the Lemon Project Team and many others have put forth conducting research on William and Mary’s involvement with slavery as well as their treatment of African Americans during the post-Emancipation and Jim Crow eras,” Caroline Watson, a doctoral student in the anthropology department, wrote in an email.
Watson works on the Campus Archaeology project which studies the history of archaeological work on campus in an effort to uncover the material lives of enslaved laborers at the College. She joined the team in fall 2019 as a research fellow and chose to enroll at the College because of the Lemon Project.
“I am personally humbled by the work I do with the Lemon Project, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an impactful team,” Watson wrote. “I know that the ground-breaking of the memorial was a proud moment for the Lemon Project, yet it also inspired continued research and activism, because this work is not done.”
Associate Director of the Lemon Project Dr. Sarah Thomas sees the Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved as a permanent, tangible reminder to bring about conversation and continued change. The memorial features about two hundred names to honor those enslaved by the College.
“With Hearth, we will remember and recognize that William & Mary would not be here today without the labor of enslaved African Americans from our founding to 1865,” Thomas wrote in an email. “The Memorial will be both a place of gathering, honoring, and celebrating William & Mary students, faculty, staff, and alumni, but also importantly, a place for healing and reconciliation for African Americans in the greater Williamsburg area.”
“With Hearth, we will remember and recognize that William & Mary would not be here today without the labor of enslaved African Americans from our founding to 1865,” Thomas wrote in an email. “The Memorial will be both a place of gathering, honoring, and celebrating William & Mary students, faculty, staff, and alumni, but also importantly, a place for healing and reconciliation for African Americans in the greater Williamsburg area.”
Postdoctoral Research Associate of the Lemon Project Dr. Jajuan S. Johnson conducts genealogy research to discover the descendants of those enslaved by the College.
“When I think about the Lemon Project, it’s how we can use the information of the past to raise our consciousness not only create a more equitable campus but a more equitable society for all people by highlighting these stories that have been relegated to the past and have been in historic denial and how they have become woven into the fabric of our current ideologies,” Johnson said.
Johnson further explains how the memorial achieves the Project’s visions for a more equitable society through historical education.
“I hope as a commemorative space it will bring some reflection that will prompt action, it is not just enough to build a memorial,” Johnson said. “It’s a beginning and becomes a healing space on many levels if we are committed to the continual transformative work that comes about constantly dealing with the challenges that we have inherited from this very troubling past.”
“I hope as a commemorative space it will bring some reflection that will prompt action, it is not just enough to build a memorial,” Johnson said. “It’s a beginning and becomes a healing space on many levels if we are committed to the continual transformative work that comes about constantly dealing with the challenges that we have inherited from this very troubling past.”
In addition to the new structure on campus, outside of Jefferson Hall, the “Sankofa Seed” sculpture was recently unveiled. This artwork and the Legacy Tribute Garden support the Lemon Project’s goals.
“Since the Board of Visitors founded The Lemon Project in 2009 through a resolution, we always look backward as we move forward,” Thomas wrote. “We can’t move forward as a university with reconciliation and healing unless we understand our full history. We must remember, respect, and recognize Black members of our community — past, present, and future.”
The memorial is not the only undertaking the Lemon Project conducts. Genealogy and research are a main component of their work especially regarding outreach to the community.
Ethan Miller ’23, a current intern for the Lemon Project, focuses on outreach, engagement and research. He joined the Lemon Project to become further educated about the College’s history while simultaneously working on a team to make a positive impact in the community.
“While I had a general knowledge of William & Mary’s past, the Lemon Project serves an incredibly unique role in attempting to highlight and focus our attention and efforts in reframing the narrative around William & Mary’s past is something that I believe is incredibly unique to our university and would not be possible without the Lemon Project,” Miller wrote in an email.
During the summer, for the first time the Lemon Learner’s camp was held with the theme: “Black history matters.” Miller, an instructor at the camp, described how rising ninth graders from nearby school districts honed research skills while learning about the local history through guest speakers and special collections.
“The project has aimed to empower all students regardless of age and I believe that students at William and Mary can and should look to the Lemon Project as a resource, place of learning, and vehicle for empowerment when examining William & Mary’s past history,” Miller wrote.
The Lemon Project, as seen through the Hearth, also facilitates discussions about race with internships, collaborations, events and the Lemon Project Society, where students assist the project’s goals and can submit applications in the spring.
“It’s really important for students to take time to understand the history of the institution where they are receiving an education from,” Thomas wrote. “William and Mary would not exist without the labor of enslaved people who built and maintained the university from 1693 to 1865.”
Watson suggests students take classes that delve into the topics of race, as it builds a “theoretical skillset” to be able to talk about race in a productive manner.
To aid in student dialogue, the Lemon Project hosts many events such as Lemon’s Legacies Porch Talks, the Lemon Project Spring Symposium and the annual Donning of the Kente during graduation.The Lemon Project also has a YouTube channel that features many of last year’s virtual events. In the future, the team look forward to adding more bricks to the Hearth: the Memorial to the Enslaved as research unveils more narratives.
“[Hearth: the Memorial to the Enslaved] gives us space to create new histories. We can do things differently for the next generation, we can lay out and interpret these truths in an ethical and responsible way and make different decisions,” Johnson wrote.
