My Visit To The Legacy Museum In Montgomery
Lynchers Thanked By Judge. Hanged To The Arm of Goddess of Liberty. Freed By Jury, Lynched By Mob.
An exhibit on the wall at The Legacy Museum in Montgomery displays dozens of turn-of-the-century local headlines reporting racial terrorism. It is jarring. There is a lot to digest from my visit this week, but this one remains top of mind.
I was not shaken so much by the event the headlines described as the clinical detachment of the headlines themselves. What can one infer of a social, political, and cultural context so perverse that homicide provokes the same emotional stimulus as another good quarter for retail, or an expected high of fifty-two?
Bruised But Not Fractured, Out Three Weeks. Budget Negotiations Stalled At City Hall. Man Burned Alive To Cheers.
It is an unsettling exhibition — as it should be. The lynching part of the journey was where I felt the most moved. Bryan Stevenson and his team have done a fantastic job. Go visit.
