The National Memorial for Peace and Justice seemed to be surrounded by a tall concrete slab wall, and you had to have a ticket ($5) to enter; however, once inside it was seen that the front of the city-block had the wall, and the other sides had low metal slat fences. We could have seen the memorial for free, albeit from afar. Yet the cost to really experience it is negligible.
The memorial commemorates 4,400 black people who were slain in lynchings and other racial killings between 1877 and 1950. Their names, where known, are engraved on 800 dark, rectangular steel hanging columns, one for each US county where lynchings occurred. To clarify, a lynching is any public killing of an individual who has not received due process.
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| Trying to capture the whole of Memorial Square in one photo (this is also a Roadside America attraction) |
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| "True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice" is a quote from the book Stride Toward Freedom (1958, by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr) that chronicles the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 |
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| Nkyinkyim Installation (2018, by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo) |
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| More like rusted steel boxes hanging in regimented rows; the size and number of them are overwhelming |
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| Looking down on duplicates of the 800 "coffins," which the creators of the memorial hope will be claimed by each county to "enter an era of truth-telling about racial injustice and their own local histories" |
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| The counties are arranged alphabetically by state, then county, starting in the outer square and spirally inward, so that it was not easy to seek out a particular state |
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| An example of a county in Tennessee (KSS) |
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| The rows appear staggered, here there are probably ten rows across, with each row continuing forward and back in the photo |
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| As you progressed, the floor lowered; at night, a light must shine under each |
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| Now they were above our heads (KSS) |
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| Along the walls were narratives where the reasons for lynching seemed unreasonable and were often false, and the brutality of the torture and killings were unconscionable |
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| Water flowing over a long wall was a tribute to the many unknown victims whose deaths were not documented |
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| Soil was gathered at over two dozen lynching sites to honor those who lost their lives |
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| One long line of the county "coffins" |
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| Ohio was listed as a state rather than by county (KSS) |
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| The names are cut through the Cor-Ten weathering steel sheets, which develop protective coatings of rust |
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| It seemed that these states were combined into one marker for having only one lynching per state, and we never found Indiana (perhaps they have already claimed theirs?) |
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| A general view of the memorial |
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| The Ida B Wells Memorial Grove for sitting and reflecting |
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| Another view of the memorial (KSS) |
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| Guided by Justice (2018, by Dana King) depicts different generations of women walking as they boycotted riding the Montgomery buses |
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| Raise Up (2016, by Hank Willis Thomas) highlights the treatment of people of color by law enforcement and the criminal justice system in the US (KSS) |
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| Community Reckoning recognizes the communities that have engaged in public remembrance of lynching and racial terror |
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| The 1921 Tulsa Massacre Historical Marker facsimile |
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| The Lynching of George White in Wilmington, Delaware |
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| Arise (2022, by Branly Cadet) is dedicated to those in their local communities who are working for public memorialization of victims of racial terror |
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| Honoring Civil Rights Activists in The Legacy Plaza |
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| The $5 entry fee covered both The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and a timed entry ticket was required for the museum |
Unfortunately, no photography is allowed. The museum uses modern technology to tell the story in five sections: Slavery, Reconstruction, Lynching, Civil Rights and Mass Incarceration. For instance, the captured Africans being lost at sea was represented by passing through a long room with videos of waves splashing on two sides, and the "sea" floor littered with sculptured heads bearing terrorized faces.
You progressed through a chronological history to realize that although we know about Rosa Parks and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, there were exponentially so many more people involved in the struggle for equal rights and human dignity for all. There were previous bus boycotts and women arrested for not yielding a seat on a bus. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had been litigating many lawsuits against racial inequality. More than 100 years after the founding of the NAACP (1909), the organization is still fighting for equal rights today!
The museum provided examples of literacy tests were such that we could never pass; one being to tell how many jelly beans were in a large jar. One large room, lined with the images, music and stories of those who worked to challenge racial injustice over the years, was meant for reflection, and there was a gallery of sculpture and art.
Next: Montgomery to Selma, AL.
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| Lunch was at the museum franchise of Pannie-George's Kitchen, with homestyle Southern cuisine; we haa a baked pork chop with boiled okra, collard greens, and thick creamed corn |
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| The Memory Garden fountain in memory of thousands of unknown and unnamed victims of racial terror lynchings |
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| Fountain detail |
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