A sculpture of enslaved men, women and children seen in Alabama Bicentennial Park in Montgomery, Alabama on January 24, 2023. Alabama was a slave state from 1819 to 1865, and Montgomery was a major slave trading destination. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
When you come out from under the rusty monoliths inscribed with the names of lynching victims and the counties that bear the guilt of their deaths at Montgomery’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, you come to another set of monoliths lying on the ground.
They’re duplicates of what you’ve just seen. The Equal Justice Initiative, which runs the memorial, has offered them to each American county where a lynching took place. It’s a reminder that the past lines our paths and runs beneath our feet…