Category:Oberlin College Memorial Arch

This memorial archway, located within the college's campus, was dedicated to the memory of thirteen missionaries (almost all Oberlin graduates) who, along with their wives and five children, were murdered during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in the summer of 1900. In 1994 a plaque commemorating the Chinese Christians killed alongside them was added. From its beginnings, it had become an unwritten tradition for leaving students to pass beneath the arch during their graduation ceremonies; however with increasing moral controversy regarding the whole missionary in China milieu, in view of its historical context, some graduates took to walking around the arch instead as a silent protest.