Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park Will Open to the Public on Juneteenth

On June 19^th, or Juneteenth, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) will cel­e­brate the open­ing of the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, its lat­est muse­um in Montgomery, Alabama. The 17-acre site dis­plays con­tem­po­rary art­works, first-per­son nar­ra­tives, and his­tor­i­cal arti­facts which tell the sto­ries about the more than 10 mil­lion Black peo­ple who were enslaved in the United States. Visitors to the park will embark on a unique nar­ra­tive jour­ney that explores the nation’s his­to­ry of enslave­ment and its enduring legacy. 

“I believe this will become a spe­cial place for mil­lions of peo­ple who want to reck­on with the his­to­ry of slav­ery and hon­or the lives of peo­ple who endured tremen­dous hard­ship but still found ways to love in the midst of sor­row,” said EJI direc­tor Bryan Stevenson. ​“Many of us are the heirs to that extra­or­di­nary per­se­ver­ance and hope. There is a lot to learn at this site and we want every­one to experience it.” 

A core fea­ture of the park is the National Monument to Freedom; stand­ing near­ly four sto­ries tall, the mon­u­ment lists 122,000 sur­names of near­ly five mil­lion Black peo­ple list­ed in the 1870 U.S. Census. ​“There’s a nar­ra­tive of tri­umph that we need to acknowl­edge and the mon­u­ment is a ges­ture toward that, as a phys­i­cal space but also as a way of nam­ing names, mak­ing per­son­al, mak­ing human this his­to­ry,” Mr. Stevenson told the Guardian. Interactive fea­tures at the site allow vis­i­tors to trace sur­names geo­graph­i­cal­ly and genealog­i­cal­ly, pro­vid­ing descen­dants an oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore fam­i­ly his­to­ries. ​“For peo­ple who are descen­dants to come and see that name and have a tan­gi­ble con­nec­tion made to that lega­cy is impor­tant and nec­es­sary,” he explained. 

Following the path of traf­ficked enslaved peo­ple, vis­i­tors can choose to enter the park by boat, cross­ing the Alabama River. Visitors are first pro­vid­ed with a brief his­to­ry of Indigenous peo­ples in America, and then will learn about the his­to­ry of slav­ery, with sec­tions of the park specif­i­cal­ly cov­er­ing the slave trade, laws per­tain­ing to the prac­tice, and acts of resis­tance. The park includes a mix­ture of his­tor­i­cal arti­facts, includ­ing 170-year-old plan­ta­tion dwellings and a whip­ping post, recre­ations, and 48 sculp­tures by 27 artists, half of which are new­ly com­mis­sioned works. The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is the lat­est addi­tion to EJI’s exist­ing lega­cy sites – the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum.