Peter Thalheim
It is fitting and proper that the United States dedicate, solemnize, and erect a memorial on our nation’s most precious ground, the Washington Mall in Washington, District of Columbia, to commemorate the slavery and human bondage that existed on these shores before and after the founding of the United States in 1776 and the drafting of our Constitution in 1787.Germany is the only major world military or economic power to have a memorial in its nation’s capital to honor and commemorate a historic wrong committed by a nation. In that case, it was the Holocaust murder of over six million Jews during the regime of Adolf Hitler, in 1933-1945. The United States is strong enough that she can erect a memorial to the inhumane treatment of people from the African continent, whom were enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the horrific treatment of such people and their offspring on these shores. Such memorial should be located on the Washington Mall within view of the Lincoln Memorial as he was martyred by the Slave Power and also visible to the Jefferson Memorial as Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, the most significant political document to that time, declaring the truth that all are created equal and have certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.The Registry of Donors to the National Slavery Memorial has the potential to receive so many donations based on the goodwill of the American people, exhibited in part in the aftermath of the killing of African American George Floyd in May 2020. Such donations would far outstrip the cost to design, engineer, and erect the memorial that these excess funds would be donated directly to our historically black colleges and universities, a national treasure.
