Where does downtown Durham memorial for people enslaved at Stagville Plantation stand?
Durham County is putting $237,000 toward a downtown memorial honoring the enslaved people of Stagville Plantation.
“Stagville was not just a slave plantation. It was considered a slave complex,” County Commissioner Nimasheena Burns said this month. “They had over 900 people at Stagville. That is a very rich history.”
The Stagville historic site, a small remnant of what was once among the largest plantations in North Carolina, lies less than 10 miles north of downtown Durham.
Organizers of the downtown memorial have not decided where it will go, but they want to bring the history of slavery to Durham’s city center, where it can’t be tucked into the woods and ignored.
On Monday night, the Board of County Commissioners voted to give the money to the nonprofit Stagville Memorial Project, which has been working on the project for years:
- 2017: Durham protesters toppled a Confederate statue downtown.
- 2018: A city-county committee on Confederate Monuments and Memorials identified “enslaved people” as missing from the narrative formed by local historical monuments.
- 2019: The idea for a downtown Stagville monument was formed following a “serendipitous meeting” among Stagville descendants and people involved in local politics.
- 2020: A committee held listening sessions to gather input.
- 2021: The county promised its support. The committee formed a nonprofit.
- Juneteenth 2022: When they initially hoped to unveil a memorial.
- November 2023: The first significant chunk of funding — $237,000 from the county — was secured.
They still need to pick a location, choose an artist and gather community input on the design.
The city is also being asked to help fund the project. It was an option in this year’s participatory budgeting process, where residents vote on how to spend $2.4 million on projects benefiting the community.
The results are being tallied, and the winning projects should be announced this month. The request for the Stagville monument was set at $275,000.
“Even if it doesn’t get selected ... we need them to be a partner on this,” County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs said.
Visiting Stagville Plantation
Address: 5828 Old Oxford Highway, Durham, NC, 27112
Hours: Open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: Free. Guided tours cost $2 for adults and $1 for seniors and children.
Contact: 919-620-0120
This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 10:00 AM.
