The nation’s first memorial to the victims of racially-motivated lynchings opens tomorrow, April 26, in Montgomery, Alabama. The project is the result of nearly a decade of work by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a Montgomery-based nonprofit that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners, in collaboration with Boston-based MASS Design Group.
In 2010, EJI began investigating the thousands of murders that have taken place in the American South. The group’s research led to a 2015 report, Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, which documented more than 4,400 lynchings across 12 states. The group then set about to memorialize the victims, visiting the sites of hundreds of these death and planning to build a museum and memorial on a six-acre site in Alabama’s capital city.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.