Lynching memorial and museum in Montgomery open to public

By Beth J. Harpaz AP Travel Editor

Thursday, April 26, 2018 11:05 AM

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) The public is getting its first look at a lynching memorial and museum in Montgomery, Alabama.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened Thursday. It commemorates 4,400 black people who lost their lives in lynchings and other racial killings between 1877 and 1950. Their names, where known, are engraved on 800 steel rectangles, one for each U.S. county where lynchings occurred.

Also opening in Montgomery is The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.

Launch events include a "Peace and Justice Summit" featuring celebrities and activists such as Ava DuVernay, Marian Wright Edelman and Gloria Steinem.

The summit, museum and memorial are projects of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery-based legal advocacy group founded by attorney Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson won a MacArthur "genius" award for his human rights work.

Lynching memorial and museum in Montgomery open to public

Toni Battle stands inside a display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in racist lynchings, which opened to the public Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. Battle, who drove from San Francisco to attend said "I'm a descendant of three lynching victims," her face wet with tears. "I wanted to come and honor them and also those in my family that couldn't be here." (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

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Angel Smith Dixon stands inside a display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor people killed in racist lynchings, which opened to the public Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. Smith Dixon who came from Lawrenceville, Ga., to see the memorial said, "We're publicly grieving this atrocity for the first time as a nation. ... You can't grieve something you can't see, something you don't acknowledge. Part of the healing process, the first step is to acknowledge it." (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

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This photo shows a bronze statue called "Raise Up" as part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in racist lynchings, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The national memorial aims to teach about America's past in hope of promoting understanding and healing. It's scheduled to open on Thursday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

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The Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, leaves an event at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday, April 26, 2018. The memorial to lynching victims opens to the public Thursday. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

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This photo shows a bronze statue called "Raise Up", part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in lynchings, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The memorial and an accompanying museum that open this week in Montgomery are a project of the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group in Montgomery. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

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This photo shows names of "unknown" lynching victims as a part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in lynchings, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The memorial aims to teach about America's past in hope of promoting understanding and healing. The memorial and an accompanying museum that open this week. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

The Associated Press

This photo shows part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in lynchings, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The memorial and an accompanying museum that open this week in Montgomery are a project of the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group in Montgomery. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

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Part of a statue depicting chained people is on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in racist lynchings, Sunday, April 22, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The national memorial aims to teach about America's past in hope of promoting understanding and healing. It's scheduled to open on Thursday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

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