07/22/2026
First Public Art Piece Commemorating the Arrival of Enslaved Africans to the North Carolina Shores
On July 16, 2026, the Africa to Carolina Inclusive Public Art Initiative debuted its first major installation at the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson Historic Site, honoring the lives and legacies of enslaved Africans who disembarked on the shores of North Carolina. Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson is one of the many ports along North Carolina’s coastline that in total had approximately 2,000 enslaved Africans arrive on 11 documented voyages in the 18th century. Led by the NC African American Heritage Commission, the public art installation was formed through collaborative community engagement and created by North Carolina artists David Wilson and Stephen Hayes, and includes a poem by NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green. The Africa to Carolina project formed in 2018 after a charge from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to identify, acknowledge and memorialize sites where enslaved Africans disembarked in the Americas from the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
