The National Lynching Memorial Opens In Alabama

Posted on April 26, 2018 by SouthernGirl2

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening Thursday, stands high on a hillside overlooking downtown Montgomery, Ala. Beyond the buildings you can see the winding Alabama River and hear the distant whistle of a train — the nexus that made the city a hub for the domestic slave trade.

And that’s where the experience begins as visitors encounter a life-size sculpture in bronze of six people in rusting shackles, including a mother with a baby in her arms.

Pain and terror: America remembers its past

“You see the agony and the anguish and the suffering in these figures,” says Bryan Stevenson, founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative, the non-profit legal advocacy group that created the memorial.

“It’s people in distress,” Stevenson says. “And I don’t think we’ve actually done a very good job of acknowledging the pain and agony, the suffering, the humiliation, the complete denial of humanity that slavery created for black people on this continent.”

Stevenson serves as a tour guide through the somber space – which remembers the nation’s history of racial terror, representing a journey from slavery to the period after the Civil War, and before the civil rights movement.

“No reconciliation without an acknowledgement”

The memorial houses 800 steel blocks, each 6 feet tall, suspended from above, and arranged in a square surrounding a grassy courtyard. There’s a monument for each county where racial killings occurred, including one from Carroll County, Miss., “where nearly two dozen people were lynched,” Stevenson says.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday, is dedicated to victims of lynching. Lynsey Weatherspoon for NPR
A memorial to honor victims of lynching will open tomorrow in Montgomery, Alabama. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice features 800 metal structures that bear the names of thousands of people killed.
America’s first memorial to its 4,400 lynching victims

They resemble elongated gravestones, etched with the names of victims.

The Equal Justice Initiative has documented more than 4,000 “racial terror” lynchings — extrajudicial killings, often by hanging, for alleged crimes – in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950.

People like Arthur Sinclair — a black minister lynched in Florida for performing an interracial wedding.

As you walk through the memorial, the orientation of the hanging monuments changes from eye level to overhead, evoking the way many lynching victims were hung, often in public spaces.

“They lifted these bodies up as a statement to the entire African-American community,” Stevenson says. “They wanted to lift up this violence this terror this tragedy for others to see.”

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
This entry was posted in African Americans, Crimes Against Humanity, Current Events, Jim Crow laws, Lynching, Memorial, Murder, Open Thread, racial terror, White Supremacy and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

24 Responses to The National Lynching Memorial Opens In Alabama

  11. rikyrah says:
    April 26, 2018 at 9:52 am

    I bet that visiting will be a powerful experience 😥😥

    Reply
    • SouthernGirl2 says:
      April 26, 2018 at 9:44 am

      I would rather die than suffer from their barbarism. Just kill me and get it over with.

      Reply
      • Liza says:
        April 26, 2018 at 9:56 am

        There’s a lot here to think about, that’s for sure.

        I would wonder sometimes how Bryan Stevenson speaks of this history so calmly, at least with an outwardly calm demeanor. And I think the answer is that he’s just been doing it for so long.

        The days of revising American history must be put behind us.

        Reply
    • Liza says:
      April 26, 2018 at 9:49 am

      John Legend Verified account
      @johnlegend

      I imagine there’s some comfort in imagining a future without racism and projecting that onto the present. Thinking if we just deny the truth, it doesn’t exist. If history is erased, we don’t have to deal with its consequences. However…

      3:00 PM – 25 Apr 2018

      @johnlegend

      Far too many people don’t have the luxury of closing their eyes and ears. They feel it in their lives and can’t act like what they see and know doesn’t exist.

      @johnlegend

      They know their family was destroyed by deportation or incarceration. They know their loved one was denied safe harbor because of their religion. They know their son or daughter was shot because their skin color evoked fear

      @johnlegend

      They see the statistics about black applications for real estate or loans or employment being turned away because their name was Jamal and not James

      @johnlegend

      I love that great, brilliant artists have the power to imagine a better future. But artists can’t be blind to the truth.

      Reply
  19. SouthernGirl2 says:
    April 26, 2018 at 9:30 am

    This just makes you sick to your stomach. But our story must be told. ALL OF IT!

    Reply

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