Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial to Victims of Lynching

[avalon]

The Legacy of Lynching, On Death Row

I thought this was an interesting profile on Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative. He has been talking for a while about marking the historical sites of lynchings. EJI released a video of their plan for a memorial:

The memorial also has a more provocative component. Adjacent to the colonnade will be another eight hundred and one columns, exact duplicates. Each county in which a lynching took place will be invited to remove its memorial column and display it in its own community. The columns that remain in Montgomery will stand in mute rebuke to the places that refuse to acknowledge their history of lynching. “For us, it’s the kind of activism that has clarity, purpose, and a goal,” Stevenson told me. “Sometimes the goals aren’t very clear or very well articulated, and you don’t know whether you’re getting closer or not. This will give us a way of measuring that. We’ll know the places that are resisting, and it should build pressure on those communities, and the people in those communities, that are either not doing enough or need to do more.”

 

[SCDeac]

What a load of shit. Let's demand that people in communities be ashamed of something they had absolutely nothing to do with.

 

[Wrangor]

I get the idea behind it. However I think you be better to have it in a central location like Washington DC where people could come study the historical effects of racism and injustice. If you erect something like that in the actual venues you are more than likely just going to stir up more hatred in the community.


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[RJKarl]

If a monument "stirs up hatred", it was already there.

 

[jhmd2000]

I get the idea behind it. However I think you be better to have it in a central location like Washington DC where people could come study the historical effects of racism and injustice. If you erect something like that in the actual venues you are more than likely just going to stir up more hatred in the community.


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It's the job of the rest of the country to teach 20 year old white Alabamans what they didn't do wrong. I like the idea of the design, though. Powerful ideas at work, that's for sure.

 

[deacphan]

it's pretty impressive how far southerners will go to memorialize those that died protecting slavery as opposed to the ones that died as a result.

 

[PhDeac]

What a load of shit. Let's demand that people in communities be ashamed of something they had absolutely nothing to do with.

This is rich coming from a South Carolinian. You all take pride in the states pro-slavery history. Which makes more sense? Being ashamed of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow or honoring it?

And Wrangor, it's our history. If accurately telling history stirs up hatred, so be it. It's an ugly history. I would hope you care as much about Confederate memorials.

What sense does it make to memorialize Confederate oppressors while continuing to deny humanity to the victims?

 

[CantStandYa]

I get the idea behind it. However I think you be better to have it in a central location like Washington DC where people could come study the historical effects of racism and injustice. If you erect something like that in the actual venues you are more than likely just going to stir up more hatred in the community.


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So Dallas should take away the Sixth Floor Museum and other markers of the JFK assassination? Should Ford's Theater be removed from the National Historic Site list? What about the bridge in Selma? Should that be torn down altogether?

 

[Wrangor]

So Dallas should take away the Sixth Floor Museum and other markers of the JFK assassination? Should Ford's Theater be removed from the National Historic Site list? What about the bridge in Selma? Should that be torn down altogether?

I'm not sure I said that. First of all the bridge in Selma is an actual bridge. Nobody built it to be a memorial. The JFK assassination isn't a controversial totem either. There was one (or a couple of guys if you believe the theories) that killed a sitting president and pretty much the entire world wept.

Lynchings were the systematic culmination of hatred between one group of people against another. Our efforts as a country should be to solve this problem that clearly still exists today, although not to the same impact of public executions. I'm not sure what you are getting at but I can assure that erecting a lynching monument is not going to help race relations anywhere.

It important to remember the past so that we can use it to move forward. It is also important to use some wisdom and common sense. Your correlations are pretty ridiculous. When considering the actual impact of these monuments in the community it is going to be a net loss and be used to inflame tensions not heal them.


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[Wrangor]

And Wrangor, it's our history. If accurately telling history stirs up hatred, so be it. It's an ugly history. I would hope you care as much about Confederate memorials.

What sense does it make to memorialize Confederate oppressors while continuing to deny humanity to the victims?

Oh I agree. Which is why I think the place for confederate history is in a museum, right next to the gallows. So that history can be fully told. Not in a Mississippi flag, next to a local restaurant or in other places that simply cause more tension. Why do you think these confederate monuments were built in the first place? To intimidate and cause tension. Now you are defending it? I agree with your second part. I guess you are okay with both recognitions because they are 'history'? Use some common sense PH. I am not denying anyone's humanity. Don't try to establish a negative premise that does not exist.


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[Wrangor]

If a monument "stirs up hatred", it was already there.

And? Have you seen Milwaukee? You want to willingly stir up hatred that already exists? That sounds extremely wise.


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[DistrictDeacon]

People like Wrangor is why the concept of this memorial is 100% appropriate.

History just doesn't go away if you hide it away. But it does make it much easier to repeat.

 

[sailordeac]

all lynchings, or just racially motivated ones?

 

[PhDeac]

Oh I agree. Which is why I think the place for confederate history is in a museum, right next to the gallows. So that history can be fully told. Not in a Mississippi flag, next to a local restaurant or in other places that simply cause more tension. Why do you think these confederate monuments were built in the first place? To intimidate and cause tension. Now you are defending it? I agree with your second part. I guess you are okay with both recognitions because they are 'history'? Use some common sense PH. I am not denying anyone's humanity. Don't try to establish a negative premise that does not exist.


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A lynching memorial isn't celebrating the lynchers. So I'm unclear how you figure my posts defends Confederate memorials unless you're trying to cause tension.

Good post, District.

 

[Wrangor]

People like Wrangor is why the concept of this memorial is 100% appropriate.

History just doesn't go away if you hide it away. But it does make it much easier to repeat.

Barking up the wrong tree. My family is instrumental in preserving and communicating racial history. We help fund and manage the Emmett till commission here in Mississippi which includes a museum, a community center, and historical Markers. It's a bi racial committee of community leaders that work together to try and solve racial tensions, not exacerbate them.

It takes wisdom to know how to illuminate people's bias in a manner in which change can occur. There are a lot of posts, including yours, on this thread from people who live in in ivory towers and rarely have to deal with true racial problems. I'm on the front line here in Mississippi and doing my best to change the status quo.

Let me explain how this will go if a lynching memorial is established in an area with high racial tension. Some idiot redneck is going to come in the middle of the night and either defile or destroy the memorial. Then there is going to be some sort of backlash by an idiot african american who thinks that he can lash out against all white people because some idiot defiled a memorial. Then a large portion of the white population in the area are going to open the newspaper and see some stupid act by a stupid kid and reconfirm an bias that they may have been able to move away from. You see, I think the idea is good. I think we should remember the past so we don't repeat it. I am also wise enough to know (due to living in the deep south) that you need to be strategic because there are a lot of prejudice idiots out there on both sides of the color line, and you need to make sure that they don't screw up any progress by inciting a riot. Its called wanting progress not a talking point.


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[DistrictDeacon]

I'm not sure what you are getting at but I can assure that erecting a lynching monument is not going to help race relations anywhere.

When considering the actual impact of these monuments in the community it is going to be a net loss and be used to inflame tensions not heal them.

We help fund and manage the Emmett till commission here in Mississippi which includes a museum, a community center, and historical Markers.

Uh, ok?

 

[Wrangor]

Uh, ok?

Big difference in a historical marker (IE: a sign) and the construction of a lynching Gallow. No? One informs, the other inflames. Which is why I said there are proper avenues to remember and inform the public of racial history. I don't think erected a lynching gallow in the middle of a racially tense area is a wise move. There are better ways to go about educating our public without causing unnecessary tension.

 

[RJKarl]

Big difference in a historical marker (IE: a sign) and the construction of a lynching Gallow. No? One informs, the other inflames.

Does the Holocaust Museum inflame Germans and Italians?

 

[RJKarl]

all lynchings, or just racially motivated ones?

exactly which lynchings of black people weren't racially motivated?

 

[simosfrostyone]

And? Have you seen Milwaukee? You want to willingly stir up hatred that already exists? That sounds extremely wise.


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Timing can mean a lot. Seems to me that racial tension (hatred) is way up right now. Even if this is a good idea I don't think now is a good time to do it.