The Marking of a painful memory

The article which was published nearly 2 months ago, begins with the latest development in a story which has been developing over three years surrounding the University of Georgia’s missteps in a response to a discovery made in 2015. The discovery was first made when a construction crew that hired for renovations in Baldwin Hall found the remains of over 100 individuals primarily of African American descent. Since then the University of Georgia has been reluctant in acknowledging their ties to slavery and and recognizing the contributions of slaves to the University by taking over a year to publicly state that the remains were of African descent rather than of European descent as they initially claimed when the remains were discovered and then quietly reburying the remains in Oconee Cemetery. Their efforts to discreetly handle the situation were met with outrage from people in the community, particularly those in the African American community, on campus who felt excluded in the process to rebury individuals. In an attempt to pacify the fury from students in Athens, a small ceremony was held dedicating a memorial headstone for the deceased. It did nothing to quell the resentment and sense of betrayal and was met instead with demands towards the university. Now UGA is ready to make a public statement to acknowledge their ties to “America's original sin” and have laid out plans for a granite memorial for the individuals who were removed from the ground site of Baldwin Hall and reburied at a nearby cemetery last year.