New park honors the lives and memories of those enslaved

In late March, a first of its kind park opened up in Montgomery, AL. It’s dedicated to those who were in Slave. The idea behind Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is not only to enlighten visitors about the past. The goal is to let them experience what it may have been like for those enslaved men and women who were brought through that area hundreds of years ago. Lester Holt takes us there for this week’s Sunday Spotlight. The peaceful beauty of the Alabama River in Montgomery is undeniable, but so is its place in a brutal history. So the narrative will begin on this boat. Absolutely. Being sold down the river, being trafficked by boat or by rail, was an absolutely terrifying experience for enslaved people. Bryan Stevenson is the founder and CEO of the Equal Justice Initiative, which created the Freedom Monument sculpture park on these shores where the slave trade once flourished. There’s not much in the visual record of that era that helps you get a sense of the humanity of these people, and so sculptures and replicas help weave the story from the places they were held. They would put them in holding pens where they would wait until the auction to the places they were whipped so they would be shackled. Yes, you can see the metal points here along the trail, visitors are reminded this human trafficking was not just a stain on the South. North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey. It’s tentacles reach N no, it begins in the North. It begins in New England. Also posted here, laws that codified Brutality Against Slaves homicides shall be deemed excusable when committed by accident or misfortune. In lawfully correcting a slave license to kill, the monument, Park joins the recently opened Legacy Museum, which documents the history and impact of the Atlantic slave trade. A third site, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, lays bare the raw history of lynching in America. It seems like a direct repudiation of some of the things, the movements we’ve heard over the last couple of years to not teach some of this history. Critical race theory. For me, it’s been a lifelong ambition to just kind of get people to reckon with the truth. We can’t get there if we don’t talk honestly about this history. The centerpiece of the sculpture park, this wall embossed with 122,000 surnames that were adopted by newly emancipated slaves during the 1870 census. And these are the names that represent the 4 million people who were emancipated and recorded in 1870. And you know, we wanted to see them in a place of honor, see them on a wall. The urge is to grieve for them. Bryan Stevenson wants us to honor them. He quotes from the inscription at the base of the wall. We honor your perseverance in the midst of sorrow. We honor your struggle for freedom. Your children love you. And the line that jumps out of me, the country you built, must honor you. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s what this monument hopes to do Absolutely. For Sunday today. Lester Holt, Montgomery AL Lester. Thank you.