The National Memorial for Peace and Justice!

What Is The National Memorial for Peace and Justice?

This is America’s first memorial to Black folks who were enslaved, segregated, lynched and/or wrongfully imprisoned, opened April 26, 2018.

What Makes It Beautiful?

This is one of the heaviest places I’ve ever visited, and visiting alone in a snowstorm really built on that. There are 800 Corten steel monuments here, each representing a US county where a lynching took place, and on each monument are the names of the people who were lynched there. There are 4,400 names recorded here on the kind of steel that will rust forever without corroding.

As you enter the memorial square, these monuments are at ground level, but the floor slopes away as you walk, bringing them higher and higher overhead. Around this memorial pavilion, there are monuments to enslaved folks and the women who supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott, along with quotes from Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Alexander, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This is a deeply sad and reflective place on its own, but what makes this memorial so unique is that it is meant to be shared. There are duplicate monuments for every county represented here, and each is invited to take one and install it onsite, where the folks who were lynched there can be remembered. The memorial and Legacy Museum have also gathered and displayed bottles of soil taken from lynching sites with the names of the people who were lynched there.

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Pay the entrance fee to help maintain trails, signs, structures, and other visitor services!
Donate to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!