A national lynching memorial and museum is about to open in Alabama, and visitors will be 'uncomfortable'

Lynching memorial to open in Alabama
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/AP)

On Thursday, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opens in Montgomery, Alabama, along with its accompanying Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. The two sites will be the nation's first "comprehensive memorial dedicated to racial terror lynchings of African Americans and the legacy of slavery and racial inequality in America," according to the organization behind it, the Equal Justice Initiative. The memorial features 800 brown metal slabs inscribed with the names of 4,400 African Americans lynched or otherwise killed in "racial terror" incidents from 1977 to 1950. Each 6-foot-tall slab represents one of the 800 U.S. counties where the lynchings occurred.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.