HAMPTON, Va. — A new sculpture depicting Virginia's first African American family was unveiled Saturday at the African Landing Memorial at Fort Monroe in Hampton.
The unveiling was part of a National Ceremony of Remembrance and Renewal at Fort Monroe, which included a procession of descendants to the memorial site before the ceremony started at 11 a.m.
Antony, Isabella, and their son William arrived at Point Comfort from Angola aboard the White Lion in 1619, making them Virginia's first African American family. Saturday's sculpture is the first of three planned installations that will make up the full African Landing Memorial.
"The statue just marks what does it mean to come across those waters, to survive that, and to see that survival go forward in the future. Antony, Isabella, and William–they belong to all of us," Kaye Wise Whitehead, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, said.
The first installation honors Antony, Isabella, and William, while also remembering all those who arrived at Point Comfort aboard the White Lion in August 1619. A second installation, called The Arc, is expected later this year and will rise vertically toward the sky as a symbol of hope for the future. The third and final installation — a 25-foot-wide Relief Wall — is expected in 2028 and will tell a broader story of the first Africans, from life in West Central Africa and the trauma of capture and the Middle Passage to their arrival at Point Comfort and their early years in Virginia.
Wanda Tucker, a descendant of William Tucker, was among those who gathered for the ceremony alongside local and state leaders.
Watch previous coverage: Descendants of first enslaved Africans to arrive in Virginia reflect on America's 250th anniversary
"Isabella and Antony and those survivors of the White Lion, they didn't come by choice. They were here by force. But what they did after they got here is what matters. And that's how I'm still here," Tucker said.
Governor Abigail Spanberger also spoke at the unveiling, calling the moment a responsibility for Virginians.
"It's ensuring that Virginia is setting an example, certainly by the nature of our history. The very fact that the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia is a responsibility for all of us here in Virginia to mark this place, to honor this place," Governor Spanberger said.
The ceremony wrapped up African Landing Commemoration Week, which honored the memory, resilience, and culture of the first Africans in English North America at Point Comfort.
Watch previous coverage: African Landing Day kicks off week of events honoring 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans in Hampton
"A moment of both pain, and of laughter, a moment of family, but of the incredible sacrifices that took—that our ancestors took— to get us here," Whitehead said.
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