36 volunteer for downtown Charleston African Burial Memorial

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Progress has started on the memorial for the Gaillard Center to honor dozens of people of African descent, whose remains were found in 2013.

Exactly 36 people within the Charleston area have volunteered to cast their hands for the Anson Street African Burial Memorial. Volunteers range from ages four to 91, and each set of hands will represent and honor an ancestor found.

Members of the project say the memorial will represent the community and all African American ancestors in the Charleston area.

“We just want to give honor and homage to those that came before us in the most honorable and loving way that we can, and we feel that this is one part of that loving and honorable way,” LaSheia Oubre, director of education and outreach engagement community for the Anson Street African Burial Memorial said. “Even though they aren’t our blood relatives, it is our moral responsibility to honor and take care of our ancestors and our graveyards and our gravesites.”

Oubre says this is a historical moment, as the ancestors represented come from the 18th Century.

Stephen Hayes from North Carolina is the artist behind the memorial.

Volunteers will continue casting their hands throughout Saturday, and the finished memorial is expected to be on display at the Gaillard Center within two years.

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