PHOTOS: New Exhibits at National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery
Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, gave Alabama News Network an up-close look at new exhibits at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery.
A major new sculpture and nearly 50 marker monuments that document racial terror lynchings in the U.S. can now be seen. The markers tell the stories of specific lynchings and recognize communities around the country which are making sure these acts of violence are never forgotten.
“On each of these markers, there’s a complete story about what happened in places like Athens, Ohio, Decatur, Georgia, and Birmingham and Springfield, Missouri,” Stevenson told Alabama News Network.
“Now visitors will get to read about these particular lynchings and particular sites. The other thing that’s important about these markers is that they actually represent the work in those communities by community members to memorialize this history so each of these markers is a duplicate of a marker that now exist in each of these communities.”
The new expansion, called Community Reckoning, includes a sculpture by artist Branly Cadet that represents thousands of people around the country engaged in community remembrance work.
The sculpture, Arise, dramatizes the work of local citizens helping their communities remember and reckon with history.
EJI opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in 2018. It is the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow.
