The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama is a national memorial to commemorate the victims of lynching in the United States, specifically those from the post-reconstruction era between 1877 and 1950, and honors the memory of nearly 4400 victims of racial terror lynchings.
The main part of the memorial, memorial square, holds 805 hanging steel rectangles. On each rectangle is the name of counties where documented lynchings took place along with the names of the victims, in some cases marked as unknown. As you walk through the memorial the steel rectangles elevate further and further off the ground until you are walking directly underneath them.
Outside the square there are steel columns corresponding to those hanging in the memorial that are meant to be temporary displays. The Equal Justice Initiative has asked that representatives of each of the counties to claim their monument and establish a memorial on the home ground to the lynching victims, and conduct related public education.
The memorial was designed by MASS Design Group with Lam Partners lighting design as a work of the Equal Justice Initiative. The memorial also features sculptures by Hank Willis Thomas, Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, and Dana King.
You can donate directly to the Equal Justice Initiative here: https://support.eji.org/give/268781/#!/donation/checkout
If you find yourself in Montgomery, Alabama visit.
More information at https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/
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