Date: September 26, 2025
ALEXANDRIA, Va., September 25, 2025 – Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Reparations Memorial to honor African Americans who labored at the Seminary between 1823 and 1951. The memorial is part of the Seminary’s Reparations Program.
Created by mother and daughter team Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Njena Surae Jarvis from Jackson-Jarvis Studio, the memorial features a series of stained-glass windows set in ironwork. The design draws inspiration from features of the Seminary’s campus, such as historic windows, arches, ironwork and trees. All known laborers, both named and unnamed, will be etched into the glass windows, with space left for additional names uncovered by future research. The memorial will be located in a prominent position on campus close to Quaker Lane, a busy throughfare, to ensure it is visible and accessible to the local Alexandria community.
VTS launched its Reparations Program in 2019 as part of the Seminary’s commitment to recognizing its participation in oppression in the past and working towards healing and justice in the future. Funded through a $2.8 million Reparations Endowment, the program makes annual cash payments in perpetuity to the descendants of Black people, both enslaved and free, who labored at the seminary during slavery and Jim Crow. While VTS does not believe any amount of money can compensate for the suffering that took place, it does think cash reparations are appropriate in recognition of the fact that those who labored at the Seminary between 1823 and 1951 were either not compensated, or were not compensated fairly, for their labor. To date, more than 200 descendants have received annual payments from the fund.
In the six years since the program was established, the descendant base has grown to more than 1,000 people, with around a quarter actively participating in the program. To date, research has identified 557 laborers (free and enslaved), 311 of whom are known by name. VTS is committed to the ongoing research of uncovering the 234 unnamed enslaved laborers to take the next steps in finding their living descendants.
In addition to making payments to the descendants of those who labored on the campus, the Seminary has also entered into a Reparations Covenant with Meade Memorial Episcopal Church and Oakland Baptist Church, two local Black congregations that have significant historical ties to the Seminary and the Reparations Program’s descendant community. Approximately $20,000 in grants has also been made to support the ministry projects of VTS alumni working in Black contexts.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary, said: “Remembering the past is a Christian obligation. Forgetting is a sin. This memorial is a recognition that people labored on this Seminary in an unjust and cruel environment. We honor their memory. We pray that God will use this memorial as a vehicle that changes the present and creates new options for the future.”
Ebonee Davis-Hayes, Director of Reparations at Virginia Theological Seminary, said: “It is the goal of the VTS Reparations Program to acknowledge both the moral and material transgressions of the Seminary’s participation in slavery and oppression. Remembering is a vital step in that process, and the memorial is an outward expression of the Program’s inner work of bringing forth the memory of a community VTS once ignored.”
The Reparations Memorial is scheduled to be completed in early 2027.
Notes to editors:
For media enquiries, please contact Nicky Burridge, Senior Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at VTS.
Tel: (703) 461-1782
Mobile: (703) 300-2876
Email: [email protected]
Photo caption: An artist’s rendering of the Reparations Memorial; descendants and members of the VTS board break ground for the Reparations Memorial.
About Virginia Theological Seminary:
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823 and has a long tradition of shaping faithful women and men, lay and ordained, for leadership in The Episcopal Church and beyond. It is the strongest seminary in the Anglican Communion and provides more than 25 percent of the clergy of The Episcopal Church.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]