Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind their way past artwork depicting the lives of American slaves and historic exhibits, including two cabins where slaves lived, before reaching the towering monument. Arrive.
Nearly four stories tall, the National Freedom Monument honors the millions of people who endured the atrocities of slavery. The monument is inscribed with his 122,000 surnames, chosen by former slaves for themselves, as recorded in the 1870 census after their emancipation at the end of the Civil War. .
The sculpture park is the third location established by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to an unflinching look at this country’s history of slavery, racism, and discriminatory policing. Masu. The first two locations — the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to those killed in racial terror killings; and “The Heritage Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration” opened in his 2018.
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Opening March 27, the sculpture park will feature art installations, historical artifacts, and personal touches to explore the history of American slavery and honor the millions of people who endured its brutality. Weaving together stories.
Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson said after launching the first two sites, he felt there was more work to be done. He said most of the plantation’s tourist attractions center around the lives of the enslaved families. His goal was a place where visitors would have a “really honest experience of the history of slavery.”
“I think this is a space where we can tell the truth and come face to face with parts of our history and paths that we are not normally taught,” he said. But he also believes it is ultimately a “hopeful place.”
Sculpture “Black Renaissance” by Raven DiClerk, bronze, 2023. Seen during a media tour of the Equal Justice Initiative’s new Liberty Monument Sculpture Park on March 12, 2024 in Montgomery, Alabama. (AP Photo/Vasya Hunt)
“If people found a way to build families and futures despite the horrors of that institution, we can do the same in our own time and find that these histories are more burdensome than we realize.” We can build a future with less,” Stevenson said. .
The 17-acre site is nestled between the winding banks of the Alabama River’s murky waters and railroad tracks. Railroad tracks were his two means of transportation used to transport people to the city’s slave markets in the 1800s. Visitors arrive by boat and can essentially retrace the steps taken to rescue stolen and trafficked people.
The park is set to open as some politicians, including in the Deep South, seek to set standards for how race and history are taught in classrooms and workforce training sessions. Stephenson says such backlash is always accompanied by progress.
“I see this as a kind of desperate act to cling to the silence and the status quo and the burden of prejudice that we have endured for so long, and I don’t believe it will succeed. Because the truth is ‘powerful,”’ Stevenson said.
The Sculpture Park features major works by artists such as Simone Lee. Lee’s Brick House is a 16-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman that sits as a formidable force at the entrance to the garden.
In Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s work “Mama, I Hurt My Hand,” a child dragging a bag of cotton holds out his hand to his mother to show her his injured hand, and the mother holds out a basket of cotton. balancing a toddler strapped to his back. Near them sat an exhausted man with scars on his skin and splints on his legs.
Exhibits include two 170-year-old cabins that housed slave families on cotton plantations, a whipping table, chains used to restrain trafficked people, and replicas of shipping crates and slave-holding pens. It is included. Interwoven between the exhibits are first-person accounts of their lives by enslaved and former slaves.
Los Angeles-based sculptor Alison Searle said her work in the garden is “about the theme of escaped slaves and their ability to survive and thrive on their own.”
“Everything is incredible and I feel like it’s needed now more than ever,” Searle said. Visitors to the park will encounter sculptures that tell “the truly beautiful stories and glories of not just the horrors of enslavement, but those who somehow escaped it and created their own lives.”
The centerpiece of this park is the National Freedom Monument. The monument bears the name taken from his 1870 census, where formerly enslaved people claimed the surname.
Visitors can walk to find and touch the names of their family members while seeing their own faces reflected in the polished granite. This is something Stevenson himself recently experienced as more names were carved in stone.
“When I came here and saw my name, I was surprised at how much it affected me, even though I had been planning it for two years,” he said.
EJI is a legal advocacy organization perhaps best known for its work freeing wrongfully convicted death row inmates. This work is the subject of a 2019 film starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, based on Stevenson’s best-selling book “Just Mercy.”
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Several years ago, the organization erected the first historical marker in downtown Montgomery marking the location of slave markets and lynchings throughout the South.
Confronting truth and history is key to America moving forward, Stevenson said, comparing him to an alcoholic who must acknowledge the harm caused by abuse in order to move forward.
“I think there’s something better waiting for us. I think there’s more freedom, more equality, more justice. But I don’t think we can get there unless we tear down barriers and society.” This is the burden of being silent about history,” Stevenson said.
