The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial, is a national memorial to commemorate the black victims of
lynching in the United States
Lynching was the widespread occurrence of extrajudicial killings which began in the United States' pre–Civil War South in the 1830s and ended during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the victims of lynchings wer ...
. It is intended to focus on and acknowledge past racial terrorism and advocate for social justice in America. Founded by the non-profit
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a non-profit organization, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and othe ...
, it opened in downtown
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
on April 26, 2018.
It consists of a memorial square with 805 hanging steel rectangles representing each of the U.S. counties where a documented lynching took place. It also includes several sculptures depicting themes related to racial violence.
The monument was positively received by architectural critics, activists, and the general public.
Philip Kennicott
Philip Kennicott is the chief Art and Architecture Critic of ''The Washington Post.''
Education
Kennicott was raised in Schenectady, New York, where he studied piano with composer and pianist Joseph Fennimore. In 1983, he attended Deep Spring ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' described it as "one of the most powerful and effective new memorials created in a generation".
Background
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice was created by the
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a non-profit organization, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and othe ...
(EJI) on a six acre site in the downtown area of
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
. The memorial opened to the public April 26, 2018.
The memorial is also connected to th
Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration which opened the same day, near the site of a former marker in
Montgomery where enslaved people were sold. EJI hopes that the memorial "inspires communities across the nation to enter an era of truth-telling about racial injustice and their own local histories."
The memorial not only focuses on the legacy of racial terror lynchings, racial segregation and Jim Crow, and present issues of guilt and police violence.
The six-acre site includes sculptures and displays from
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo (born 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and activist, known for his sculptures and massive body of works dedicated to the memory, healing and Restorative Justice for people of African descent. His outdoor sculptur ...
, Dana King, and
Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture.
Early life and education
Hank Willis Th ...
. There are also writings and words from
Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...
,
Elizabeth Alexander, and
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. A reflection space is also located on the memorial site in honor
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...
.
The largest part of the memorial is the memorial square. The memorial square was created using EJI's study, ''Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror''. The memorial consists of 805 suspended steel beams. Each beam represents a county within a state where a racial terror lynching occurred and was documented. Each of the six-foot beams is engraved with the names and locations of the victims of racial terrorism, including lynching. Victims of racial terrorism whose names are unknown are remembered on the beams as well. The memorial also includes replicas of the steel beams that are set off to the side. These replica beams are a part of EJI's Community Remembrance Project.
The development and construction of the memorial complex cost an estimated $20 million, raised from private foundations.
Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, law professor at New York University School of Law, and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, he ...
, founder of the EJI, was inspired by the examples of the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (german: Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), also known as the Holocaust Memorial (German: ''Holocaust-Mahnmal''), is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by arc ...
in
Berlin, Germany
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...
, and the
Apartheid Museum
The Apartheid Museum is a museum in Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 ...
in
Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, to create a single memorial to victims of
white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
in the United States.
EJI's ''Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror'' was a multi-year investigation into racial lynchings. By studying records in
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
across the United States, researchers documented almost 4400 racial terror lynchings in the post-
Reconstruction era
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
between 1877 and 1950. Most took place in the decades just before and after the turn of the 20th century.
[ A conversation about the difficulty of doing research on lynchings and racial terror violence was started when an error was found at the memorial not long after its opening.] The error, a mistake in naming a victim from Duluth, Minnesota, was quickly corrected by EJI.
Description
In the central position is the memorial square with 805 hanging steel rectangles, the size and shape of coffins. These name and represent each of the counties (and their states) where a documented lynching took place in the United States, as compiled in the EJI study, ''Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror'' (2017, 3rd edition). Each of the steel plates also has the names of the documented lynching victims (or "unknown" if the name is not known). The names and dates of documented victims are engraved on the panels. Visitors to the site have commented on how, from afar, the beams look like a forest of hanging bodies, and the replica beams off to the side look like rows of coffins. More than 4075 documented lynchings of black people took place between 1877 and 1950, concentrated in 12 Southern states. In addition, the EJI has published supplementary information about lynchings in several states outside the South. The monument is the first major work in the nation to name and honor these victims.
The central memorial was designed by MASS Design Group
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
with Lam Partners lighting design, and built on land purchased by EJI.[ ]Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture.
Early life and education
Hank Willis Th ...
's sculpture, ''Rise Up'', features a wall, from which emerge statues of black heads and bodies raising their arms in surrender to the viewer. The piece suggests visibility, which is one of the intentions of the monument. The viewer is asked to focus and see the subject of the artwork. This is a more current piece commenting on the police violence and police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
prevalent in the years preceding the memorial. Thomas has said about his artwork, "I see the work that I make as asking questions."
In the landscaped area outside the monument are benches where visitors can sit to reflect. These are dedicated to commemorating such activists as journalist Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...
, who in the 1890s risked her life to report that lynchings were more about economic competition of blacks and whites, than actual assaults by blacks of whites. Laid in rows on the ground are steel columns corresponding to those hanging in the Memorial. These columns are intended to be temporary. The Equal Justice Initiative is asking representatives of each of the counties to claim their monument and establish a memorial on home ground to lynching victims, and to conduct related public education. The placing of these monuments is that last step of EJI's Community Remembrance Project, and a memorial beam is placed when a community has engaged with and discussed issues of racial violence both in the past and present in their communities. EJI hopes that the monument in the community will "stand as a symbolic reminder of the community’s continuing efforts to truthfully grapple with painful racial history, challenge injustice where it exists in their own lives, and vow never to repeat the terror and violence of the past."
A month after the monument's opening, the ''Montgomery Advertiser'' reported that citizens in Montgomery County were considering asking for their column. Both county and the city of Montgomery officials were also discussing this.
Central monuments
''Nkyinkyim'' by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo
The Memorial is organized in three different sections. The first section is the lead up to the monument which begins to tell the tale of the beginning of the lives of African Americans through the demonstration of the racial terror evoked in the Middle Passage. Visitors first encounter a sculpture by Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo (born 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and activist, known for his sculptures and massive body of works dedicated to the memory, healing and Restorative Justice for people of African descent. His outdoor sculptur ...
entitled ''Nkyinkyim'', meaning "twisted", a term referring to a Ghanaian proverb, "life is a twisted journey". The sculpture, seven shackled figures of all ages and genders interlocked together, is part of larger project Akoto-Bamfo began in Accra, Ghana where he creates clay busts of formerly enslaved people in an attempt to preserve their memories and livelihood, a common tradition practiced by the Akan people
The Akan () people live primarily in present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast in West Africa. The Akan language (also known as ''Twi/Fante'') are a group of dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo ...
in Ghana.
In the Middle Passage, people were stripped of their African identity through the loss of names, ethnic identity, families, and more. The Nkyinkyim sculptures include description and details of each shackled person portrayed; Akoto-Bamfo's sculptures aim to return these identities symbolically, giving them backgrounds ranging from “Daughter of a Royal” to “Uncle’s Brother” to “The Lost Guardian”.
''Guided by Justice'' by Dana King
American artist Dana King
Dana King (born March 7, 1960) is an American broadcast journalist and sculptor. She served as an anchor for the CBS owned-and-operated station KPIX-TV in San Francisco. In 2012, King left KPIX to pursue her passion in sculpting and art. Her outdo ...
's ''Guided by Justice'' is a rendering of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...
during the Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. It depicts three women: a grandmother, a teacher, and a pregnant woman. There are footprints on the ground near the three people, representing a call to action for others to join them in the cause. King's sculpture also aims to have viewers reconsider the mythology of the heroines of the bus boycott: mythologizing historical figures like Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the ...
draws away attention from the thousands of other black people who were central in the success of the bus boycott; the three anonymous figures and the adjacent footprints demonstrate the importance of these "silent activists".
''Raise Up'' by Hank Willis Thomas
The journey through the memorial continues with Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture.
Early life and education
Hank Willis Th ...
's sculpture ''Raise Up'', a depiction of policing in America. The sculpture depicts ten Black men, encased in concrete, some with their heads sunken into the concrete with their hands up and their eyes closed. Cultural studies scholar Tanja Schult saw Thomas' sculpture as a powerful evocation of the reality of black men in America when coming face to face with law enforcement. Thomas interestingly encases these Black men in concrete, leaving them unable to move. Some figures' heads are sunken in as well, further demonstrating the lack of control and autonomy black people have over their bodies. Though most of their bodies covered, their hands are clearly visible, referencing the many stories of unarmed Black men being shot and brutalized by the police despite their innocence. The National Memorial uses Thomas’ sculpture as a connection to the present, a kind of call to action that the fight for justice and liberation is ongoing.
Importance for Montgomery
Prior to the 1990s, there was limited acknowledgement in Montgomery to the painful legacy of slavery and racism, although the city had numerous monuments related to the Confederacy, many erected by private organizations. The city has developed a Civil Rights trail marking such events as the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
, and also identified buildings and sites associated with slavery, such as the former market site.[ With the opening of the monument, the city was ranked by the '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' as its Top 2018 Destination. Lee Sentell of the Alabama Department of Tourism acknowledged that the National Memorial offers a different and painful encounter: "Most museums are somewhat objective and benign...This one is not. This is aggressive, political. ... It's a part of American history that has never been addressed as much in your face as this story is being told". Mayor Todd Strange
Todd Strange (born June 26, 1966) is an American musician who is the bass guitarist for sludge metal band Crowbar. He also toured with Down and performed live in support of their debut album, ''NOLA.''
Career
Strange formed Crowbar with Ki ...
suggested that the memorial offered "our nation's best chance at reconciliation".
The opening celebrations, in May 2018, attracted thousands of people to Montgomery,[ perhaps as many as 10,000. Artists who performed included ]Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
, Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman.
LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul".
She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...
, and Usher
Usher may refer to:
Several jobs which originally involved directing people and ensuring people are in the correct place:
* Usher (occupation)
** Church usher
** Wedding usher, one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony
** Fiel ...
; speakers included U.S. Congressman and civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
activist John Lewis
John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...
from Georgia. Publishers of the ''Montgomery Advertiser
The ''Montgomery Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper and news website located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.
History
The newspaper began publication in 1829 as ''The Planter's Gazette.'' Its first editor was Moseley Baker. It ...
'', prompted by the establishment of the memorial, reviewed and formally apologized for its historic coverage of lynchings, which was often inflammatory against black victims, describing it as "our shame" and saying "we were wrong".
The memorial and its attendant museum are expected to generate heightened tourism for Montgomery,[ even if it is ]dark tourism
Dark tourism (also Thana tourism (as in Thanatos), black tourism, morbid tourism, or grief tourism) has been defined as tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy (event), tragedy. More recently, it was sugg ...
.[ '']The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'' noted that, with the addition of the memorial and the museum, Montgomery and Atlanta together provide a narrative of African-American history, as the latter has sites associated with national Civil Rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and local history as well. Tourism officials said that possibly 100,000 extra visitors per year may arrive.
The Legacy Museum
Opened on the same date as the outdoor memorial, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration is a museum that displays and interprets the history of slavery and racism in America, with a focus on mass incarceration and racial inequality in the justice system.[
The museum features artwork by ]Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture.
Early life and education
Hank Willis Th ...
, Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon (born 1960, pronounced Lie-gōne) is an American conceptual artist whose work explores race, language, desire, sexuality, and identity.Meyer, Richard. "Glenn Ligon", in George E. Haggerty and Bonnie Zimmerman (eds), ''Gay Histories a ...
, Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...
, Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett, born as Alice Elizabeth Catlett, also known as Elizabeth Catlett Mora (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) was an African American sculptor and graphic artist best known for her depictions of the Black-American experience in th ...
, Titus Kaphar
Titus Kaphar is an American contemporary painter whose work reconfigures and regenerates art history to include the African-American subject. His paintings are held in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Yale University Art G ...
, and Sanford Biggers
Sanford Biggers (born 1970 in Los Angeles) is a Harlem-based interdisciplinary artist who works in film/video, installation, sculpture, music, and performance. . One of its displays is a collection of soil from lynching sites across the United States, a step in EJI'
Community Remembrance Project
This exhibit expresses the vast effects of slavery, lynchings, and black oppression across state lines. The exhibits in the 11,000-square-foot museum include oral history, archival materials, and interactive technology.
Gallery
File:The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.jpg, Outside view of the memorial
File:Nkyinkim Installation by Kwame Akoto Bamfo at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.jpg, Installation by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo (born 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and activist, known for his sculptures and massive body of works dedicated to the memory, healing and Restorative Justice for people of African descent. His outdoor sculptur ...
File:Memorial Monuments at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.jpg, Memorial Monuments
File:Rise Up by Hank Willis Thomas.jpg, Installation by Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture.
Early life and education
Hank Willis Th ...
File:Temporary steel columns at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.jpg, Steel columns intended for each county
File:Montgomery December 2018 25 (National Memorial for Peace and Justice Center).jpg, National Memorial for Peace and Justice Center
File:Montgomery December 2018 27 (National Memorial for Peace and Justice Garden).jpg, National Memorial for Peace and Justice Garden
See also
*List of lynching victims in the United States
This is a list of lynching victims in the United States. While the definition has changed over time, lynching is often defined as the summary execution of one or more persons without due process of law by a group of people organized interna ...
*List of museums focused on African Americans
This is a list of museums in the United States whose primary focus is on African American culture and history. Such museums are commonly known as African American museums. According to scholar Raymond Doswell, an African American museum is "an i ...
*National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...
*Topography of Terror
The Topography of Terror (german: Topographie des Terrors) is an outdoor and indoor history museum in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings, which during the Nazi reg ...
, a museum in Berlin dedicated to the victims of the Nazi regime
References
External links
*
"Architecture that's built to heal": Michael Murphy presenting the proposed memorial
at the TED conference
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
(2016).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Memorial to Peace and Justice, The
2018 establishments in Alabama
African-American historic places
African-American museums in Alabama
Buildings and structures in Montgomery, Alabama
Community Remembrance Project
Cultural tourism
Lynching in the United States
Lynching memorials
Monuments and memorials in Alabama
Monuments and memorials to victims of slavery in the United States
Museums in Montgomery, Alabama
Slavery in the United States
Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, Alabama