New York – December 10, 2014
On Wednesday 10 December, the President hosted a luncheon to raise funds for the Permanent Memorial to and Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
In an effort to acknowledge the tragedy of slavery, the General Assembly decided in 2007 to establish the Permanent Memorial. Last year, at the conclusion of an international competition, the Committee for the Permanent Memorial, chaired by the Permanent Representative of Jamaica, announced Rodney Leon’s Ark of Return as the winning design.
The Permanent Memorial will be a reminder of the legacy of the slave trade. It will provide future generations with an understanding of the history and consequences of slavery and will serve as an educational tool to raise awareness about the current dangers of racism, prejudice and the lingering consequences that continue to impact the descendants of the victims today.
