Monument would honor black history

Gov. Mike Easley's budget includes $1 million for a Freedom Monument.

The proposed monument in downtown Raleigh would honor the places where plantation slaves came together to learn. According to this account, it would be located next to the state Archives building across the street from the General Assembly.

A design team of multimedia artist Juan Logan, art historian Lyneise Williams and architect David Swanson, all of Chapel Hill, was selected by organizers in 2006. 

Their design includes a serpentine wall depicting the Jim Crow era with a large crack symbolizing the Wilmington race riots, a "weeping wall" representing slavery and an auction block with well-worn footprints.

The monument project was started in 2002 by the Paul Green Foundation of Chapel Hill. The group plans to spend $2.5 million with private donations and public money.

Organizers say except for an anonymous black soldier in the N.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, blacks are not represented on the Capitol grounds. 

The N.C. Freedom Monument Project's Web site says it has already received support from the N.C. Humanities Council, the N.C. Arts Council and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.