Bryan Stevenson Q&A: Alabama park confronts difficult history in sculpture
How should the story of slavery in the United States be told?
In Montgomery, Alabama – once a major trafficking port for enslaved people – a new 17-acre park with a focus on art is attracting thousands of visitors. Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, opened in late March, features bronze sculptures and historical artifacts that highlight what life was like for enslaved people. The park culminates in the four-story National Monument to Freedom, inscribed with 122,000 last names that formerly enslaved people chose for themselves after being emancipated.
The sculpture park is the third Legacy Site created by the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy organization started by Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer perhaps best known for his memoir and the 2019 movie based on it, “Just Mercy.”
In a recent video call with the Monitor, Mr. Stevenson shared that he traveled to plantations during the pandemic, and it made him think about the
