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s I walked through the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park gazing at beautiful sculptures that depict more than 400 years of the most horrendous human injustices practiced in US history, I was in awe. Before me was stunning art that told the poignant and horrific story of more than 10 million enslaved Black people in America. Here was a place where they were not only mourned, but also honored for persevering, for hoping and for loving in the midst of struggle. I was in Montgomery, Alabama with 1200 people from around the world to dedicate the 17-acre park that is the third Legacy site of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a criminal justice reform and racial justice nonprofit.
The Park sits on the banks of the Alabama River and is flanked by the Montgomery train station where enslaved people arrived to be sold and put into enforced labor throughout the south. As I slowly walked through the Park, a train whistle filled the heavy hot air and I thought of how humans were transported in those trains as inhumanely as enslavers treat livestock. The Park is the third in the family of sites created by EJI “where art is a portal through which visitors can see, contemplate and begin to understand the history of Black trauma in the United States,” stated The Miami Herald.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever visit Montgomery, Alabama. I grew up outside of Manhattan where racism was far more subtle. But here I was at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). It came about through a chance meeting with musician Christy Taylor, the sister of Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer and justice advocate who founded the EJI. When she shared that she was traveling to Montgomery in June for the dedication of the latest EJI site, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, about 70 of us Delawareans jumped on board.
Bryan Stevenson and EJI
Soon after I moved from the Hill to Lewes, Delaware, I saw the biographical legal drama Just Mercy starring Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson. Based on the book of the same name, the movie explores the work of young defense attorney Stevenson who, after graduating from Harvard Law School, chose to represent poor people on death row in the South.
In the foreground is Raise Up, a sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas.
Stevenson founded EJI in 1989 to provide legal representation to people illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced or abused in state jails or prisons. He and his team have freed or lessened the sentences of more than 140 incarcerated people on death row. In 2018, on the site of a cotton warehouse where enslaved Black people were forced to labor in bondage, EJI opened the Legacy Museum, which offers a powerful, immersive journey through America’s history of racial injustice.
The Legacy Museum
I assumed visiting the Legacy sites would be as upsetting as going to the Holocaust Museum. I couldn’t have been more wrong. “The legacy of slavery empowers you, not diminishes you,” said Stevenson. He said he wanted to create space in America that honors those who were enslaved during the 400 years of slavery in America. Stevenson chose to build EJI in Montgomery which was the capital of the domestic slave trade in Alabama. “…There’s something important about the authenticity of space,” said Stevenson. “If it’s going to be a pilgrimage, then you may have to leave Manhattan, you may have to leave DC and go into the region of the country where this history was so resonant. This was the heart. When Reconstruction collapsed, this was the area where terror and violence was so pervasive in the black belt of this country.”
The Legacy Museum was the most difficult for me to absorb; it is graphic, realistic and incredibly disturbing. It documents the tragic false narrative of racial difference that was created in America and which has resulted in centuries of racial bigotry and injustice. As it is described in its brochure: “The belief in racial hierarchy was used to legitimate, perpetuate and defend slavery. It survived slavery’s abolition, fueling racial terror, lynchings, demanding legally codified segregation and spawning our contemporary mass incarceration crisis. The Museum traces the evolution of this dehumanizing myth from our nation’s founding to today.”
Juneteenth Celebration at EJI
Included in the Juneteenth celebration week was a day of panel presentations by Wynton Marsalis, Stevenson’s long-time friend. “I am so uplifted and inspired by Bryan,” he said, and told how when purchasing the initial site, Stevenson had to use cash because securing a loan would mean having to disclose his purpose for the property. Another panel member Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “Bryan brought his own perspective to a position of power which a lot of people don’t do because they lack courage,” said Walker. “Philanthropy is great, but it’s economic injustice that makes philanthropy necessary.”
Panelist Anthony McGill, first clarinetist for the NY Philharmonic, talked about how he felt when he discovered his name on the wall at the end of the Park that displayed the thousands of surnames of Black people listed for the first time on the 1870 census after Emancipation. “There was no shame in my name. I used to feel shame about it when on the school bus. Kids would talk about where their names came from and I was ashamed I didn’t know.”
We attended a Juneteenth concert featuring Wynton Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, Lizz Wright, Samara Joy and Cory Henry. Their performances were interwoven with videos and stories of love and hope from special guests.
of white supremacy.
Perhaps the most surprising fact I learned on my visit was that, in contrast to the United States where the First Amendment limits the role of government in restricting speech, Germany prohibits publicly denying the Holocaust and disseminating Nazi propaganda both off- and online. This includes sharing images such as swastikas, wearing an SS uniform and making statements in support of Hitler. Germans acknowledge the Holocaust and its gruesome details as part of their history, yet here in the US we seem to want to ignore the inhumane details of our past. A trip to Montgomery can offer Americans a way to begin to recognize our past, honor those who survived and make inclusiveness a part of our future. For more information: www.eji.org.
Pattie Cinelli is a journalist who has been writing her health column in the Hill Rag for more than 25 years. Contact her at: fitmiss44@aol.com.
