Gwen Domine
Junior Editor
Chloe Wright
Editor-in-Chief
More than a hundred faculty, staff and community members attended The Rememberings, an event led by the Roberson Project on Sunday, Oct. 18, designed to commemorate 148 unmarked graves of members of the historically Black St. Mark’s community. Greg Pond, an art professor at Sewanee, worked to create metal spikes in the shape of a dogwood flower — a design done by his daughter Adeline Pond (C ‘29) — to be placed on each unmarked grave to recognize the lives of the individuals buried there. Each attendee at the ceremony was invited to take a spike and place it on a gravesite, designated by small white flags, and replace the flag with the spike.
Dr. Woody Register, history professor and director of the Roberson Project, led the ceremony and invited community members to speak, including University historiographer and religious studies professor emeritus Jerry Smith, alumna Gwendolyn Dickey (C ‘25) and St. Mark’s member Evelyn Patton. School of Letters faculty member Tiana Clark read an elegy that she wrote specifically for the event, and musical group Sewanee Praise performed gospel songs.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. Dr. Woody Register, the head of the Roberson Project, greets the crowd.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. Long-time St. Marks community and staff member Evelyn Patton speaks about her family’s legacy at Sewanee.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. Gospel group Sewanee Praise sings during an interlude.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. Sewanee historiographer and religious studies professor emeritus Jerry Smith delivers a speech about Black cemetery traditions.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. School of Letters faculty member Tiana Clark reads her poem “Elegy for the Unknown Sewanee Black Dead,” which was commissioned for the Rememberings.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. The dogwood spike designed by the University Art Department.
Photo Credit by Gwendolyn Domine. The dogwood spike with a white flag, marking the grave. Attendees were invited to take the flags home to remember the event.