In April 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) opened a groundbreaking memorial in Montgomery dedicated to African American victims of racial terror lynchings called the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP) was created in June 2018 shortly thereafter. The memorial structure is centered around over 800 steel monuments, one for each of the more than 800 counties in the United States the counties where EJI documented racial terror lynchings. EJI has invited these counties to participate in their Community Remembrance Project, retrieve their monuments, and facilitate a local reckoning.
The National Memorial For Peace and Justice
The Jefferson County Memorial Project was created after the Equal Justice Initiative opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a groundbreaking memorial in Montgomery dedicated to African American victims of racial terror violence. The Memorial contains monuments corresponding to over 800 counties where EJI documented racial terror lynchings. EJI has invited these counties to participate in their Community Remembrance Project, erect their monument and take the lead in facilitating a local reckoning.
Jefferson County’s Monument
The Jefferson County Memorial Project, a coalition formed from over 40 Jefferson County organizations and institutions, believes that we should erect the memorial in Linn Park. After much discussion, we support this decision because:
On November 24th, 1883, a white mob lynched Lewis Houston in Linn Park. This was the first of the thirty documented lynchings that occured in Jefferson County.
Linn Park was the route taken by those fighting against the poll tax, especially in the 1930’s. Voting rights was one of the core triggers that motivated the lynching of those who dared defend their rights.
Linn Park is the public space that connects the seat of City Government, City Hall, with the County Government, the Jefferson County Courthouse. These public entities allowed these acts of racial terror to occur. By placing the monument in Linn Park, we will remind our local government to never let such atrocities happen again.