by Katherine Hoffman
On May 18, 2025, the congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke gathered on their property facing Grandin Road to dedicate a memorial to the enslaved people who lived, worked, and suffered oppression on the land the church now occupies.
“We gather this morning in solemnity to honor the lives of all those enslaved on this land during one of the darkest chapters in the history of our nation, our state, and our community,” said the Rev. Jen Raffensperger, who presided over the gathering. “There is no rite or ritual that can restore the lives, dignity, or freedom of those persons once held in bondage on these lands. We can allow our understanding of the role this abhorrent practice had in the growth and thriving of our city and our county to grow, and by growing our understanding we are heartened to act justly in this world, to ensure nothing like this can happen again.”
This solemn ceremony was one result of several years of consciousness-raising and assuming responsibility for structural racism by the church community. This effort was led by the church’s Racial Justice Team, who are responsible for the church’s partnership with Williams Memorial Baptist Church in sponsoring “A Pledge to End Racism” workshops over the last seven years. Local historian Betsy Biesenbach, a member of the congregation, researched the 19th-century records that identified enslaved people who labored on what was then the Persinger farm. John Persinger owned a large tract of land stretching from what is now Colonial Ave. to the Roanoke River. Before he died, he split the land between his three sons – Jacob, James, and William – and in the process divided at least one enslaved family among them. The UU Church stands on the portion given to James, whose mansion still stands on the corner of Persinger and Mt Vernon Roads. One of the two plaques on the memorial stone lists the enslaved whose names have survived in the archives. The other shows a map of the area as it stood during the Persinger period, with a few modern landmarks indicated.
Emblematic of these important ancestors is the Jeffers family, who were separated and distributed among the three brothers. Biesenbach was particularly intrigued by daughter Amanda, who was 7 at the end of the Civil War and later turned up in the records, at 12, as a “servant” of Jacob Persinger. A writer as well as a historian, Biesenbach published a children’s book, Say My Name, about the young girl, imaging a poignant moment in her life taking place near what is now Grandin Road.
Along with five members of the Jeffers family, 26 others, some with only first names, are listed, along with whatever birth and death dates are known. During the ceremony, the plaques were unveiled by members of the church’s Racial Justice Team. Rev. Raffensperger then read each name aloud to the ringing of a brass bowl. Another three rings commemorated all those whose names are lost to history. After a moment of silence, she distributed water collected during the church’s annual ritual of Water Communion around the stone on which the plaques are mounted.
Toward the end of her remarks, Rev. Raffensperger said, “We remind ourselves that our own freedom is meaningless if others are not free. We bless this plaque and this land and hold it sacred to the memory of all those denied their freedom here. We pledge to the Love that connects us, the water that refreshes us, the earth that sustains us, the air that stirs us, and the fire that warms us, that we will not let these people be forgotten.”
Copies of Say My Name are available at the church and from Biesenbach at [email protected]. Proceeds benefit the church.
