The Equal Justice Initiative opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum. Here is my experience opening weekend.
The Equal Justice Initiative (also known as EJI) opened The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in April 2018.
I honestly don’t even know where to begin. It has taken me over a year to share my thoughts on my first look into what was one of the most shocking, gut-wrenching trips through our history — America’s history. This was not the history I learned in grade school or textbooks, and I’m inclined to believe that a huge chunk of what I witnessed was never intended to be included. The beauty of it all is through Truth and Reconciliation, the Equal Justice Initiative has created a space to educate the world on American history, especially black history, while making it available for generations to come.
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
The museum and memorial, both in Montgomery, Alabama — gives us a powerful look into America’s history of racial inequality. The Legacy Museum illustrates the evolution of racial terror lynching, including first-person accounts of domestic slave-trades. In addition, there is an abundance of research, videography, and an in-depth look into our history. This is just a snippet of what you will witness. With the National Memorial for Peace and Justice you will find sculptures, art, and over 800 monuments, one for each county in the United States where a racial lynching took place. There are also names of known and unknown victims memorialized. Our history can’t be undone, but this memorial will serve as a sacred-place to be transparent about injustices past and present. After you witness it for yourself, you will understand why silence is not an option. It will be sobering, moving, and life-changing.
On February 26, 2020, the House passes anti-lynching bill 65 years after the death of Emmett Till
The Memorial and Museum Opening Weekend
All of the opening week events sold out, and the enthusiasm for the Justice Summit, Opening Ceremony, and Concert for Peace and Justice filled the streets of downtown Montgomery. At the Justice Summit at the Montgomery Performing Arts Center, Michelle Alexander, Sherrilyn Ifill, and Jelani Cobb kicked off a series of profound and inspiring talks, followed by Rev. Dr. William Barber and Chrystal Rucker; Gloria Steinem and Marian Wright Edelman with Michel Martin; and Ava DuVernay, Anna Deavere Smith, and Elizabeth Alexander. Read more here.
I attended the EJI – Opening Weekend Concert with my family. It was so much fun! It was a beautiful evening on the open lawn as the sunset made for the perfect backdrop. I loved that Tidal X partnered with EJI to bring the Concert for Peace and Justice. The concert was also streamed live on Tidal’s platform.
The concert included EJI founder, Bryan Stevenson, as well as acts from the LEGENDARY Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews, Common, The Roots, Usher, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Kirk Franklin and many more!
You can check out my Instagram Stories here to get a glimpse of the acts from Opening Weekend!
THE LEGENDARY, Stevie Wonder
The Museum
The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration is situated on a site in Montgomery where enslaved people were once warehoused. A block from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, the Legacy Museum is steps away from an Alabama dock and rail station where tens of thousands of black people were trafficked during the 19th century.
Due to the nature of the museum, photography was not allowed. This was truly an experience you need to witness with your own eyes. So much to take in. So much history. AMERICA’S HISTORY.
More than 4400 African American men, women, and children were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950. Millions more fled the South as refugees from racial terrorism, profoundly impacting the entire nation. Until now, there has been no national memorial acknowledging the victims of racial terror lynchings. On a six-acre site atop a rise overlooking Montgomery, the national lynching memorial is a sacred space. It’s a space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terror in America and its legacy. Read more.
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” — Dr. Maya Angelou
Montgomery, Alabama (The National Memorial for Peace and Justice)
COMMUNITY REMEMBRANCE PROJECT
EJI’s Community Remembrance Project is part of our campaign to recognize the victims of lynching by collecting soil from lynching sites, erecting historical markers, and creating a national memorial that acknowledges the horrors of racial injustice. Read more.
The Legacy Pavilion will feature a monument to women, men, and children who were victims of racial terror lynchings in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and during Reconstruction. The monument memorializes over 2,000 people who were lynched between 1865 and 1876. This new monument connects to two other prominent EJI memorials in Montgomery: the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which documents the era of racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950, and the Monument at the Peace and Justice Memorial Center, which honors victims of racial terror lynchings or violence during the 1950s. Read more.
Thank you, Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative for being a vessel of hope and healing by honoring TRUTH and RECONCILIATION in a city, state, and country that desperately needs it.
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