About the Slavery, Race and Memory Project

Wake Forest University, as a southern institution founded decades before the Civil War, has a history bound up with slavery and its tragic legacies. Attempts to recover, understand and reckon more fully with that complex past have accelerated in recent years and are collected in a many-faceted Slavery, Race, and Memory Project. This effort extends across and beyond our Winston-Salem and original Wake Forest, N.C., campuses and includes active membership in the Universities Studying Slavery consortium.

Wake Forest University joined the Universities Studying Slavery consortium to help us understand and acknowledge the role enslaved peoples had in building and growing our University. The “Slavery, Race and Memory Project” will guide the research, preservation, and communication of an accurate depiction of the University’s relationship to slavery and its implications across Wake Forest’s history.

Upcoming Affiliate Events

  • October 23, 2024 | 6:00pm
    Porter Byrum Welcome Center
    Wake Forest University's Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative invites you to the EEJI Author's Forum, featuring authors Corban Addison (Wastelands) and Ryan Emanuel (On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenious Environmental Justice).  Discussion will start at 6pm, followed by a reception and book signing. The …
  • October 24, 2024 | 5:00pm
    Z. Smith Reynolds Library
    Join us for a discussion with author John Wood Sweet regarding his book The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America. This mystery, true crime tale follows Lanah Sawyer, a young woman fighting for justice. The Revolutionary-era drama takes a close look at …
  • October 25, 2024 | 1:00pm
    Benson University Center
    This workshop will explore the hidden biases that influence our decisions, relationships, and behaviors. Participants will gain valuable insights into recognizing and addressing unconscious biases, and learn how to move towards conscious inclusion by fostering a culture of conscious and equitable practices.
  • October 29, 2024 | 5:00pm
    Benson University Center
    On Tuesday, October 29, 2024, Charlotte Hill O'Neal, also known as Mama C, will participate in a public conversation at Wake Forest University.  Mama C is an accomplished poet, musician, visual artist, filmmaker, lifelong teacher and founding director of Tanzania's United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC), a community-based organization …
  • November 1, 2024 | 7:30pm
    Scales Fine Arts Center
    Love and Information By Caryl Churchill Directed by Stephen Wrentmore November 1-2 & 7-9 at 7:30 pm & November 3 & 10 at 2:00 pm   Love and Information invites us to consider how we ‘know’ and how that knowledge informs the ways we navigate our human experience.  Through …
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Upcoming SRMP Events

There are no events at this time. Please check back later.

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To Stand With and For Humanity
Essays from the Wake Forest University Slavery, Race and Memory Project

Edited by Corey D.B. Walker