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In order for us to continue to move forward
in striving for equity and striving for change,

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we have to be able to talk about our past,
in a way that's really meaningful. And the

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Memorial I think is a beautiful first step
in starting that conversation. It's intended

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to be a space for reflection and healing,
it's a space of truth-telling. We want folks

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to bring classes here, we want folks to engage
in that way. Slavery wasn't an experience

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that by any means should just be something
in our past that we say happened and we can't

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talk about it. We should help folks heal past
that trauma and past the brutality of it.

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The first thing design wise that greets you
when you come in the Memorial is this broken

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shackle image. It represents this freedom
from physical bondage. There's the path towards

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the North Star and that was the path towards
freedom. And then a second path that kind

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of aligns with the sunset on March 3, which
is Liberation and Freedom Day. It is 80 feet

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which matches the diameter of the Rotunda
taking up that space that is so rightly deserved

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in honoring this legacy. There is the timeline
of events that happened all the way through

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Isabella Gibbons death. Isabella Gibbons was
a member of the enslaved community and she

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really took it upon herself to encourage reflection
and encourage moving the needle towards equity

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and equality and so her eyes are on the back
of the Memorial. I would encourage everyone

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if they can, come witness it in person, feel
the stone, see the timeline, be here and be

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present and take a second to reflect, honor,
and encourage folks to move forward with that

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history.