Design

Models of the Memorial are displayed below. Click on the photo to see an enlargement.

Architect: Richard Smith
Photography: David Fleming

Three major ideas emerge as the primary points of interest in the design of the United States Slavery Museum, the idea of Normalcy, the idea of Denied Entry, and the idea of Culture....

THE IDEA OF NORMALCY

Slavery was a practice of normal people within a normal society. Its brutality and injustice hid behind a mask of normalcy. The manifestation of this fact is the creation of a plain facade of glass curtain wall on the Constitution Avenue street side, with marble walls flanking its sides. The glass attempts to reflect the typical Washington, D.C. marble facades of the Commerce and Interior departments across the street.

THE IDEA OF DENIED ENTRY

Black slaves in America were denied normal entry into not only American society but buildings as well. Often the "back door" was the Black slave's only entry point. This back door access remained a theme in American society until recent times. It is therefore imperative that all people experience this denied entry and become forced to enter the museum through the back door. This "back door" is manifest through a main entry off center of either major facade. The entry becomes a side door within a dark cylindrical chamber.

THE IDEA OF CULTURE

While African culture has influence American culture in significant ways, for many African Americans, the realization of their actual links to Africa are largely unknown, forgotten or nostalgic at best. Because America has ignored and denied its African links, recognition of African connections has become monumentally difficult. To reflect this fact, the facade of the south wall (the Mall side) represents a mask of allusion without specificity towards African influence and design. It is, however, a wall which glows with possibilities at night, made of translucent marble for all to recognize the potential of things unknown and long forgotten but soon to be revealed.