On February 22, 2025,  NSS Fellow Wesley Wofford unveiled his Solomon Northrup monument titled Hope Out of Darkness at Whitney Plantation in New Orleans, LA.  The unveiling occurred during the 10th Annual Ancestral Blessing Ceremony and was attended by celebratory dancers, members of Northrup’s family, and representatives of the Solomon Northup Committee for Commemorative Works.  The piece which stands, 13-feet tall, depicts the abolitionist and author of  the memoir “Twelve Years A Slave” breaking free of his chains with a roll of papers clenched in his hand and extended before him like a torch. The monument will eventually leave the plantation and travel about the U.S. throughout 2025, before being permanently installed at the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse (Marksville, LA) in early 2026.  This is Wofford’s third traveling monument having created The Journey to Freedom and Beacon of Hope , his tributes to American abolitionist and social activist Harriet Tubman.