Constructing a memorial from the dirty past of U.S. racial violence
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Most of the names of the more than 4000 victims of lynching in the U.S. have been forgotten by history, but the EJI Community Remembrance Project seeks to remedy that situation in the state of Alabama by bringing the dirt of our past to light, literally.
Volunteers are collecting soil from the sites of these violent crimes to make a memorial to the no longer nameless victims.
Lynching profoundly impacted race relations in this country and shaped the geographic, political, social, and economic conditions of African Americans in ways that are still evident today. Terror lynchings fueled the mass migration of millions of black people from the South into urban ghettos in the North and West in the first half of the 20th century. Lynching created a fearful environment in which racial subordination and segregation were maintained with limited resistance for decades. Most critically, lynching reinforced a legacy of racial inequality that has never been adequately addressed in America.
Public acknowledgment of mass violence is essential not only for victims and survivors, but also for perpetrators and bystanders who suffer from trauma and damage related to their participation in systematic violence and dehumanization. Yet most lynchings, and their victims, have never been publicly recognized.
The only thing we have to fear from the past is a repeat of its worst chapters.
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