The Equal Justice Initiative (EIJ) has attracted a lot of attention over the last several years for its marking of lynching sites throughout the United States and for its new lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. This week, the EIJ opened a new pavilion in downtown Montgomery. According to the Associated Press, “The Legacy Pavilion will include 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 EIJ says:
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.
The Legacy Pavilion honors local civil rights figures, including Martin Luther King Jr., Claudette Colvin, John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Jonathan Daniels, Jo Ann Robinson, and E.D. Nixon, and helps visitors understand the unique role Montgomery played in fueling a civil rights movement that continues to reverberate around the world.
Since it opened in April 2018, the EIJ lynching memorial has brought 650,000 visitors to Montgomery. From the Montgomery Advertiser:
“A lot of people don’t know that after emancipation thousands of black people were killed,” Bryan Stevenson said.
“It was probably the most violent time in America for African Americans. There were massacres and random violence.” More than 2,000 people were lynched in the 12-year period that followed the end of the Civil War. “We wanted to make sure that people didn’t forget the humanity.”
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
