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OXFORD, Ga. — Throughout a metropolis council assembly Monday, Oxford Faculty Dean Doug Hicks requested councilmembers to think about eradicating sure signage across the campus which have been flagged by college students and neighborhood members as traditionally inaccurate.
The suggestions are a results of conversations held throughout Emory College’s Twin Memorial Undertaking’s work classes, which Hicks co-chaired together with Affiliate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling Gregory C. Ellison II.
The Twin Memorial Undertaking seeks to honor the enslaved individuals who constructed the campus and tackle the college’s racist previous. Prior to now couple months, the college has hosted over 10 conversations with present college students, neighborhood members and descendents of enslaved peoples who labored on the college, with the purpose of erecting two memorials on every campus.
“We’ve had fantastic concepts for what a memorial might appear to be,” Hicks mentioned. “We’ve had some arduous conversations, however a complete lot of hope and pleasure of individuals coming collectively to do that work.”
Hicks talked about three indicators he would really like the councilmembers to think about eradicating: the plaque on the Accomplice cemetery on the campus, the plaque at Kitty’s Cottage and a plaque on Whatcoat Road. Hicks mentioned he has had college students in “each my workplace and in public boards” telling him about their unfavorable experiences encountering these indicators round campus and the discomfort such messaging has created.
Kitty’s Cottage is the previous residence within the 1840s of Catherine “Kitty” Andrew Boyd, who was enslaved by Methodist Bishop James Osgood Andrew, the primary chair of the college’s Board of Trustees. The plaque exterior of the cottage, which was created solely three a long time in the past, states that Andrew supplied to ship Boyd to Liberia however that Boyd “most popular to stay with the Andrew household relatively than be despatched to Africa.”
College students and Oxford neighborhood members have taken problem with the phrases on the plaque and mentioned that it paints an inaccurate view of historical past.
“These are arduous phrases that don’t appear to mirror the place our pondering is and the place our understanding of historical past is,” Hicks mentioned. “That she selected to be a slave, that she was a mulatto and that she was solely technically a slave and that she was as free because the legislation and society would permit.
“Everyone knows that the legislation and society at the moment didn’t permit her to be free. So, she could nicely have been cherished and part of the neighborhood, however freedom isn’t a time period we should always use. These are the sort of sentiments that my college students share with me.”
Moreover, neighborhood members have taken problem with the plaque within the Accomplice cemetery on Oxford’s campus, which refers back to the Accomplice troopers buried there as “our troopers.”
The signal on Whatcoat Road, which provides an summary of the faculty’s historical past, makes no point out of the enslaved peoples who constructed the campus buildings and reiterates the unfinished fact informed on the plaque at Kitty’s Cottage.
“I needed to return and share among the issues that we’re doing on the school and ask that we is likely to be companions on this work and invite residents to face with you all as leaders to take away indicators which can be comparatively latest however are inaccurate, or no less than not full, in what they inform after which suppose along with you all in no matter methods you suppose are acceptable to companion with the faculty,” Hicks mentioned.
Hicks known as the councilmembers to mirror on the signage and the model of historical past it tells.
Councilman Jim Windham mentioned that many on the council had “needed to behave this manner a decade in the past” however didn’t have the momentum or have been inspired to not act.
“The query is what can we do now, and I respectfully share this and … hopefully we are able to work collectively,” Hicks mentioned.
Mayor David Eady thanked Hicks for sharing his perspective and mentioned he has heard related considerations from neighborhood members.
“I’ve undoubtedly heard a few of these [concerns] as nicely myself,” Eady mentioned. “[I] was there in October to listen to the highly effective sharing of the scholars of what it’s like to return right here and see a few of these indicators and the questions that they raised, the necessity for us to actually mirror our historical past higher and share a few of these untold tales within the telling of our historical past.”
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