Between 1877 and 1950, more than 4400 African-American men, women, and children became victims of racial terror. They were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned and simply torn to pieces by the crowd on indirect accusations and denunciations. Most of these deaths were not investigated, and the evidence of thousands of refugees who were forced to leave the southern states, as if they did not exist for the American Themis. Followers of Jim Crow professed the lynching trial as self-defense against atrocities by their black fellow citizens, and since racial terror with the connivance of the official authorities continued for several decades, many modern Americans still consider it a "tradition" and the right to self-defense.
USA National Peace and Justice Memorial, Montgomery, Alabama. Photo: Shawn Calhoun
A sculpture by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo dedicated to the transatlantic slave trade is installed along the path leading to the memorial. Photo: Johnathon Kelso. Photo source: The New York Times
Facts and evidence collected by volunteers and lawyers of the Equal Justice Initiative became the basis of the archive of the National Peace and Justice Memorial. But you will not see photos of monstrous massacres: hanged and burned. In the architecture of MASS Design Group, they preferred an abstract design to visualize the cruelties of racism. The territory of 2,5 hectares was supposed to become more than just a place for reflection. They will not accuse, instilling a sense of guilt, but above all, they will awaken empathy.
The park is located near the former slave market in Montgomery. The top of a small hill overlooking the Alabama River is crowned by a square "temple" structure - a peristyle made of concrete and Corten steel. In his galleries, visitors are met by a "forest" of rectangular metal columns. Each of the 805 boxes shows the place of lynching - district, state, city - and a list of the names of those killed with the dates of death. At the entrance, these columns are fixed at the level of human height, but as you walk through the gallery, they rise higher and higher, and in the last hall they hang over the heads of visitors.
Galleries of the US National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Photo: Audra Melton. Image source: massdesigngroup.org
Steel boxes with the names of those killed in the years of racial terror. National Memorial for Peace and Justice of the USA. Photo: Alan Karchmer. Image source: massdesigngroup.org
Corten was chosen as the main material, as the oxidation of the surface gives each of the boxes individuality. The uneven rusty pattern reminds that with the global scale of the tragedy, in each case the victims were individual individuals.
Memorial Square. Photo: Audra Melton
In the center of the peristyle there is an open Memorial Square, the landscape design of which is based on the traditions of the southern towns of the USA. This is a reminder that very often city squares with flower beds, neatly trimmed bushes and lawns became a place of public treasury.
Soil samples from lynching sites. Source: Equal Justice Initiative
Raise Up sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas. Photo source: museumandmemorial.eji.org
Closer to the exit from the gallery, visitors find themselves in a room with "book" shelves, on which there are glass jars with soil samples collected by Equal Justice Initiative researchers at the sites of lynchings.
The sculptural genre compositions of artists Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, Hank Willis Thomas and Dana King look more expressive and meaningful against the background of a regular "forest" made of Kortenov steel.
"We knew that visitors to the memorial would not have a common understanding of these events because they had been hidden for so long. So we wanted to make the space narrative, telling a story," says Sia Sanneh, senior attorney for the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama.
The lighting design of the memorial complex was developed by lam Partners. The massive slabs and ramps at the entrance to the museum are illuminated from below by linear lamps, which creates the effect of "detachment from the ground".
The lighting design of the memorial complex was developed by lam Partners
Duplicates of metal boxes lie on the ground around the memorial. The Equal Justice Initiative is currently negotiating to place these monuments in the respective districts. The intentions of human rights defenders are far from always met with understanding in the communities - often people would like to erase these shameful pages of history from their memory, or at least not show them to the next generations.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the National Memorial of Peace and Justice was closed for quarantine. It will be opened on June 15.
