The board of the Lake Cumberland Slaves Memorial has awarded a contract to a Georgia artist to create a sculpture that will be on the grounds of Somerset Community College. The project will honor slaves who were buried in unmarked graves in the region.
The goal is to bring public attention to the work of those unrecognized residents, especially in agriculture and construction of the railroads.
Work on the sculpture has begun and it’s expected to be finished early next year.
Charles Leveridge is a board member of the slaves memorial. He said the group will begin planning a memorial garden at the site.
“We are currently looking for a landscape architect that can develop the concept drawings for what the courtyard would look like,” said Leveridge. “Once we select that, it will be another phase, essentially phase two of the whole project.”
The group is also continuing to identify cemeteries where slaves were buried in unmarked graves.
Phase three will be the creation of an educational curriculum available to area schools expected to include information on the contributions of slaves to the development of the area.
