National Memorial for Peace and Justice
April 27, 2018 7:30 PM Subscribe
Inside the memorial to victims of lynching. The first national memorial to victims of lynching opened yesterday in Montgomery, Alabama. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice commemorates 4,400+ black people who were slain in lynchings and other racial killings between 1877 and 1950. previously previouslier
I just came from the peace and justice summit the Equal Justice Initiative held to open the museum and memorial. They are doing such good work there.
posted by Maxwell's demon at 8:33 PM on April 27, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Maxwell's demon at 8:33 PM on April 27, 2018 [7 favorites]
Beautiful and haunting.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:42 PM on April 27, 2018
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:42 PM on April 27, 2018
Every single piece of art I've seen associated with this is breathtaking, in the literal 'it makes you stop breathing for a second' sort of way.
Stunning.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:59 AM on April 28, 2018
Stunning.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:59 AM on April 28, 2018
The 60 minutes piece notes that Montgomery still has a lot of Confederate monuments up, and Oprah notes thatwe've been seeing a wave of people trying to take such monuments down across the country.
Prior to this, I was kind of gung-ho about the idea of a blanket "take the Confederate monuments down" organization to take them all down right away, will of the locals be damned. But now I'm thinking - you know what, putting a memorial to the victims of lynching right bang in the middle of them is the better approach. Let that stand as an accusation, so people are shamed into wanting to take down the Confederate memorials themselves.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:48 AM on April 28, 2018 [6 favorites]
Prior to this, I was kind of gung-ho about the idea of a blanket "take the Confederate monuments down" organization to take them all down right away, will of the locals be damned. But now I'm thinking - you know what, putting a memorial to the victims of lynching right bang in the middle of them is the better approach. Let that stand as an accusation, so people are shamed into wanting to take down the Confederate memorials themselves.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:48 AM on April 28, 2018 [6 favorites]
Nah, let Black people decide if Confederate memorials should come down. If we've learned anything over the past two years, racists don't respond to shaming. They just dig their heels in.
posted by AFABulous at 7:16 AM on April 28, 2018 [18 favorites]
posted by AFABulous at 7:16 AM on April 28, 2018 [18 favorites]
The idea that a memorial for lynching victims would shame people into taking down Confederate monuments presupposes that people are willing to see the link between the ideology and the violence. They aren't.
Also, in Alabama, the dodge about "history" I hear every time this comes up has been enshrined in law, fining anyone (including a government) who removes a monument $25,000.
White allies in this state (me included) are going to have to do better. Waiting around for people to grow a conscience is not going to cut it.
posted by hollyholly at 7:49 AM on April 28, 2018 [9 favorites]
Also, in Alabama, the dodge about "history" I hear every time this comes up has been enshrined in law, fining anyone (including a government) who removes a monument $25,000.
White allies in this state (me included) are going to have to do better. Waiting around for people to grow a conscience is not going to cut it.
posted by hollyholly at 7:49 AM on April 28, 2018 [9 favorites]
I am embarrassed that I did not know how huge a number of people were killed in lynchings. Wait. No. I'm embarassed but I'm also really angry. Fuck our white supremacist society and they ways we've tried to write over history. Every single damn history book should have a chapter called "White americans lynched over 4,400 black people and there is no fucking excuse for it."
posted by mcduff at 10:17 AM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by mcduff at 10:17 AM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
Previousliest
Once a wide open site, now members only or something, Without Sanctuary is a horrific horrific collection of lynching photograph and postcards -- Jesus Fucking H. Christ ! Postcards ! -- the viewing of which will change you. Fight your way in and look and look and look. You need to.
posted by y2karl at 12:12 PM on April 28, 2018 [9 favorites]
Once a wide open site, now members only or something, Without Sanctuary is a horrific horrific collection of lynching photograph and postcards -- Jesus Fucking H. Christ ! Postcards ! -- the viewing of which will change you. Fight your way in and look and look and look. You need to.
posted by y2karl at 12:12 PM on April 28, 2018 [9 favorites]
I'm physically sick after looking at a few of those pictures. I mean, literally forcing the vomit down.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:18 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:18 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
On the question of whether it successfully inspires shame:
Lynching memorial leaves some quietly seething: ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’
The brutal new memorial to the south’s dark side has left some in Alabama frustrated and angry at its insistence on confronting the past
posted by XMLicious at 12:40 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
Lynching memorial leaves some quietly seething: ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’
The brutal new memorial to the south’s dark side has left some in Alabama frustrated and angry at its insistence on confronting the past
posted by XMLicious at 12:40 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
Fight your way in and look and look and look. You need to.
Agreed. Thank you Karl.
Fuck.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:07 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Agreed. Thank you Karl.
Fuck.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:07 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
My maternal grandfather's people sold up and left Dallas County, Alabama in the late 1920s—where they were doing well!—and moved to Michigan because of people like the ancestors of Ms. Keenan.
Why is it that Canada and South Africa both had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Germany had a massive denazification program, but African-Americans, treated as we have been for coming on 400 years, why, WE have to be the silent, noble ones, we must forgive theft, rape, and murder, and "let sleeping dogs lie"! People like Mikki Keenan in that Guardian article want to remain feeling comfortable and to maintain their privilege.
If this was about her people, would she care about "causing an uproar"? Of course not. She's probably the first one in her little group talking bullshit about how black people have to "face facts" that we're all criminals or some such cack that she knows is a lie, but her ego needs to believe. And obviously, she's not read her Faulkner.
Don't remind them that they're not the salt of the earth! Don't remind then that their ego states and collective wealth (and ability to access such wealth) stem from great crimes! Don't do well and then ignore them and not bow and scrape! That just makes them angry, and then they might have to hurt people! This whole idea that we're supposed to placate them and let the status quo continue is just...
People like Ms. Keenan are actively resisting the shame they should feel, that's why she said what she said. The advantages of whiteness, psychological and otherwise, are too hard for people like her to give up. Well, not sorry, Mikki! We aren't going anywhere, and that doesn't just go for black people in this country. Nor will we shut up. We're just going to put the unvarnished truth out there anyway, and fuck you. You have no right whatsoever to demand that we be silent in the face of such evil.
posted by droplet at 3:21 PM on April 28, 2018 [14 favorites]
Why is it that Canada and South Africa both had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Germany had a massive denazification program, but African-Americans, treated as we have been for coming on 400 years, why, WE have to be the silent, noble ones, we must forgive theft, rape, and murder, and "let sleeping dogs lie"! People like Mikki Keenan in that Guardian article want to remain feeling comfortable and to maintain their privilege.
If this was about her people, would she care about "causing an uproar"? Of course not. She's probably the first one in her little group talking bullshit about how black people have to "face facts" that we're all criminals or some such cack that she knows is a lie, but her ego needs to believe. And obviously, she's not read her Faulkner.
Don't remind them that they're not the salt of the earth! Don't remind then that their ego states and collective wealth (and ability to access such wealth) stem from great crimes! Don't do well and then ignore them and not bow and scrape! That just makes them angry, and then they might have to hurt people! This whole idea that we're supposed to placate them and let the status quo continue is just...
People like Ms. Keenan are actively resisting the shame they should feel, that's why she said what she said. The advantages of whiteness, psychological and otherwise, are too hard for people like her to give up. Well, not sorry, Mikki! We aren't going anywhere, and that doesn't just go for black people in this country. Nor will we shut up. We're just going to put the unvarnished truth out there anyway, and fuck you. You have no right whatsoever to demand that we be silent in the face of such evil.
posted by droplet at 3:21 PM on April 28, 2018 [14 favorites]
I got my ass chewed up, sideways and down once saying it's reparation time way back when here. My feelings have not changed. And not to some educational fund. Just give it to individuals -- it's their money.
posted by y2karl at 3:46 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 3:46 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
Asked about criticisms that the state-funded First White House “whitewashes” the evils of slavery, Wieland said, “We could certainly tone down the celebration [of Davis], but … it is part of civil war history.” Discussing the lack of references to slavery, he said the museum was “more of a political military history” than a “social history”.
Yeah, don't let people deflect on this "military history" account. 100,000 white southerners and 150,000 black southerners fought for the Union in the Civil War, and were militarily decisive in securing victory for the United States.
And just as a reminder, some of us still live in Alabama, have ever lived in Alabama, even here on metafilter.
posted by eustatic at 4:11 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yeah, don't let people deflect on this "military history" account. 100,000 white southerners and 150,000 black southerners fought for the Union in the Civil War, and were militarily decisive in securing victory for the United States.
And just as a reminder, some of us still live in Alabama, have ever lived in Alabama, even here on metafilter.
posted by eustatic at 4:11 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
And, oh, man, it's been too long since I visited Without Sanctuary. Oh, God, that animation... And if She exists and gives a rat's ass about us over all the other bacteria within 13 billion light years, God bless James Allen.
My father was so racist -- for him, it was nword nword nword Jew Jew Jew Kike Kike Kike 24/7 all my childhood. When he wasn't beating the shit put of my mother while we all cried and trembled in our bedrooms. It was like being raised by a rabid werewolf.
Yet he was a wonderful grandfather. Go figure.
But the truth is we are all rabid werewolves, if only in remission.
My father was so racist -- for him, it was nword nword nword Jew Jew Jew Kike Kike Kike 24/7 all my childhood. When he wasn't beating the shit put of my mother while we all cried and trembled in our bedrooms. It was like being raised by a rabid werewolf.
Yet he was a wonderful grandfather. Go figure.
But the truth is we are all rabid werewolves, if only in remission.
I am staying with white deathposted by y2karl at 4:31 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
On my way to darkness.
Do no evil, gentle one,
To anyone on Earth.
Anna Akmatova
The Montgomery Advertiser has a series on the memorial that is worth reading for the local perspective.
posted by eustatic at 5:04 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by eustatic at 5:04 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
Since there isn't enough cement to make memorials for all such sites across the US (for all races), this one might have to stand in for most of them.
posted by Twang at 7:40 PM on April 28, 2018
posted by Twang at 7:40 PM on April 28, 2018
The Montgomery Advertiser has a series on the memorial that is worth reading for the local perspective.
That story on the lynching of Robin White is a hard read. I'd say it should be required reading in high school or something to that effect, but I'm sure there would be some diehards out there who would just call it "old fake news." Or insist it's irrelevant because it happened a long time ago, never mind that the arrest, torture, and killing of Black people for the simple crime of existing has continued uninterrupted, with the blessing of the White establishment, to this day.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:38 PM on April 28, 2018
That story on the lynching of Robin White is a hard read. I'd say it should be required reading in high school or something to that effect, but I'm sure there would be some diehards out there who would just call it "old fake news." Or insist it's irrelevant because it happened a long time ago, never mind that the arrest, torture, and killing of Black people for the simple crime of existing has continued uninterrupted, with the blessing of the White establishment, to this day.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:38 PM on April 28, 2018
It reminds me of the Memorial to Murdered Jews in Berlin, only flipped on the Y axis.
I wonder if it'll end up attracting inappropriate selfies as well.
posted by acb at 4:57 AM on April 29, 2018
I wonder if it'll end up attracting inappropriate selfies as well.
posted by acb at 4:57 AM on April 29, 2018
From today's New York Times:
Ida B. Wells and the Lynching of Black Women
In a just world, there would a statue of Ida B. Wells in every city in America.
posted by y2karl at 7:57 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
Ida B. Wells and the Lynching of Black Women
In a just world, there would a statue of Ida B. Wells in every city in America.
posted by y2karl at 7:57 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]
omg omg you guys! I took 34 of my fellow community members with me on a seriously long-ass bus ride to participate in this, from Duluth MN to the Peace and Justice summit, the memorial, the museum, the opening ceremony and the concert. It was easily one of the most amazing things I've ever done. Our police chief, the descendant of an accuser that caused a lynching flew down to join us! Several elders, a bunch of kids.... I think I cried for four days straight. It was so so so inspiring.
posted by RedEmma at 8:57 AM on April 29, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by RedEmma at 8:57 AM on April 29, 2018 [9 favorites]
So, what I mean to say is that while the Memorial is incredibly tragic and affecting, along with the gut punch of the museum... the whole package was put together so well, and all that difficult soul-searching and sadness was brought out into triumph at the concert and the summit. I have nothing but the highest praise for EJI (despite any number of technical glitches during the summit), and EVERYONE should go to see it. It's... so meaningful. There are no words really.
Also...Bryan Stevenson for President.
posted by RedEmma at 9:01 AM on April 29, 2018 [6 favorites]
Also...Bryan Stevenson for President.
posted by RedEmma at 9:01 AM on April 29, 2018 [6 favorites]
From y2karl's link:
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:44 AM on May 6, 2018
...there was “a flat rule that Negroes were not to appear in photographs”; it was required that they be airbrushed out of crowd scenes.For years, most photographs and reproductions of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware were strategically cropped so as to not show the Black men in the boat.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:44 AM on May 6, 2018
From one perspective, we have come so far, but in truth, we have so much farther to go.
posted by y2karl at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2018
posted by y2karl at 12:12 PM on May 6, 2018
'Gather up the bloodstained soil'
Kennedy Warne (E-Tangata)
posted by Start with Dessert at 4:52 PM on May 17, 2018
Kennedy Warne (E-Tangata)
posted by Start with Dessert at 4:52 PM on May 17, 2018
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posted by XMLicious at 8:22 PM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]