for the first time, a national museum acknowledges the victims of lynchings

For the first time ever in American history really, a national non-Smithsonian museum is acknowledging the black victims of lynchings. Dedicated to truth-telling about the terrorism blacks experienced in this country during slavery and after abolition, the Equal Justice Initiative’s the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL. is unlike anything this country has ever seen. Paying tribute two the “more than 4400 African American men, women, and children who were hanging, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950,” the Museum and Memorial finally tells this untold history of racial terror in American and the legacy it left behind. Work on the memorial began back in 2010 when the EJI staff began investigating thousands of instances of racial terrorism which ultimately produced the 2015 interactive map: Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror. This museum is that project come to life.

In addition to mapping out thousands of lynchings, the EJI’s Legacy Museum, located on the site that warehoused enslaved people in Montgomery, unpacks American’s legacy of enslaving and brutalizing black people and the ways in which that terrorism continues today. Terrorism that is so important to acknowledge through the curatorial arts in a museum like this, but much more important for us to combat actively through activism and organizing today.

Learn more about the Museum and Memorial and planning your own trip, here.

MONTGOMERY, AL – APRIL 26: Wretha Hudson, 73, discovers a marker commemorating lynchings in Lee County, Texas while visiting the National Memorial For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. Hudson, whose father’s family came to Alabama from Lee County decades earlier, said the experience was overwhelming. “It’s a combination of pride and strength, for my people. In our culture, rain is a sign of acceptance from our ancestors. So the rain is a sign of their acceptance for this day.” The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America’s history of racial inequality. (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images)
MONTGOMERY, AL – APRIL 26: A sculpture commemorating the slave trade greets visitors at the entrance National Memorial For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America’s history of racial inequality. (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images)
MONTGOMERY, AL – APRIL 26: Wretha Hudson, 73, discovers a marker commemorating lynchings in Lee County, Texas while visiting the National Memorial For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. Hudson, whose father’s family came to Alabama from Lee County decades earlier, said the experience was overwhelming. “It’s a combination of pride and strength, for my people. In our culture, rain is a sign of acceptance from our ancestors. So the rain is a sign of their acceptance for this day.” The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America’s history of racial inequality. (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images)
MONTGOMERY, AL – APRIL 26: Veric Lang, 19, visits the National Memorial For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. “Itâs powerful,” Lang said. “Seeing the list of names and the reasons why people were killed, it’s eye opening to know what society was like back then. It make me uneasy to know what this is what my people went through. Iâm glad times have changed now, but there still a lot more we have to do.” The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America’s history of racial inequality. (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images)