A granite plaque in front of the memorial reads:This memorial recognizes Brown University’s connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the work of Africans and African-Americans, enslaved and free, who helped build our university, Rhode Island, and the nation.

In the eighteenth century slavery permeated every aspect of social and economic life in Rhode Island.

[6][7] The university established a commission in July of the following year to consider how best to fulfill the report's recommendation of creating a "living site of memory.

[9] In 2012, the university's governing body voted unanimously to award Martin Puryear the commission to design a sculptural memorial on Brown's campus.

[10] The university originally considered placing the memorial in the Jewelry District, adjacent to Brown's then-planned medical campus.