The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
∼ A Creative Stroke of Organizing Genius!
Commentary
by LeRoy Chatfield
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (aka The Lynching Museum) was created by EJI as a national public memorial for visitors to learn, to remember, and to honor African Americans who were murdered by white supremacists, but it is more than that. It also serves as an interactive link to each of the 800 counties where these lynchings took place, whether in the North or the South.
Consider this.
The Memorial displays 800 steel columns with the name of each county along with the names of the victims and the dates of their murder inscribed. In addition, there are 800 identical columns lying outside in the park area waiting to be claimed by each county for whom it was made. These yet-to-be claimed columns establish a relationship with the counties where the victims lived with their families and loved ones.
In the beginning – the Memorial is not yet a year old – this relationship is one-sided, it is one of outreach. Without doubt, some counties will soon step forward to claim their memorial column and use it as an integral part of a county memorial to honor and remember their African American victims who were put to death because of white supremacy.
Other counties will be slow to respond, but because of the existence and the prestige of the National Memorial, a public challenge has been issued to these counties and you can be sure that family members, churches, civil rights activists and organizations along with elected African American officials will insure the challenge for participation has been received by each county.
The discussion at the county level of elected local government officials will become a public issue inevitably leading to public hearings and citizen participation from churches, universities, school systems and students, civil rights groups, charitable organizations, civic organizations and many others. The final outcome will result in many more counties participating with the National Memorial by claiming their county’s steel column to create a suitable local monument. No doubt some of these reluctant counties will become a modern day confrontation of racial intolerance and backlash but truth will out and prevail.
Finally, some counties will refuse to participate at all, refuse to take any responsibility, refuse to acknowledge that any such lynchings took place, and even if they did, why not let sleeping dogs lie, why open up old wounds and upset people? Why bring this issue up 70 years later? Whatever happened, happened, just let it alone. You are stirring up trouble, you are an outsider, you do not understand.
Of course we understand white supremacy, what you do not understand is your time is up!
You have heard of the proverbial win-win outcome, but for those of you who are organizers. this national organizational drive sponsored by EJI will some day be known as the “triple win” – country, county and national memorial.
Gentle people – men, women and children of all persuasions and colors and origins – the National Memorial for Peace and Justice will mobilize our nation to learn and reflect about our history of white supremacy – that 4400 African American citizens were lynched, mutilated, burned to death, parts of their body used as souvenirs, along with many others who were terrorized and driven from their homes and their property seized by organized mobs of white supremacists.
I predict this unique effort to promote racial conciliation and make restitution to African Americans in the form of building county public monuments to teach, to remember, and to honor the memory of those who were the victims of white supremacy will some day become a major issue in a national presidential election campaign. Not so sure? Mark my prediction.
Thank you, Equal Justice Initiative!