National Peace and Justice Memorial - Part II

Today we continue of the top of the grassy hill to the memorial square.  Designed to be covered, but open on both sides. The stunning memorial consists of "over 800 cortex steel monuments, one for each county in the US where a racial terror lynching took place. The names of the known victims are engraved on the columns." As one enters, the monuments are placed at eye level. As you proceed to the corner and turn, the flooring slopes downward giving the illusion that the monuments are rising. At the bottom, the monuments are directly overhead.

At the bottom, the outside wall features water pouring over with this beautiful inscription dedicated to all of the victims who remain unidentified.

" Thousands of African Americans are unknown victims of racial terror lynchings whose deaths cannot be documented. Many whose names will never be known. They are all honored here."

The National Peace and Justice Memorial - Part I

I recently toured the newly opened National Peace and Justice Memorial ( informally known as the Lynching Memorial) in Montgomery AL. "This 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, people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence."

The memorial is a powerful reminder of our nation's history and extremely emotional experience. As I reviewed my hundreds of images last night, I realized that picking and choosing photos to post here and on social media would not convey the feeling of the memorial and do it justice. For the coming week, I will post collections of photographs in order to give my readers a stronger sense of actually being in that space.

As one enters the park, the concrete figures by artist Kwome Akoto-Bamfo, depicting the journey of slavery is absolutely heart wrenching.