The National Memorial for Peace and Justice: commémorer les victimes de lynchages aux États-Unis

C'est le 26 avril prochain que le National Memorial for Peace and Justice ouvrira ses portes à Montgomery en Alabama. Le défi est de taille, celui de sensibiliser à la délicate et troublante question des victimes de lynchages aux États-Unis. Il n'est pas anodin que l'institution soit installée en Alabama, bastion de la ségrégation raciale jusqu'à la période 1950-1960. On commémore ainsi un nombre considérable de victimes dont l'histoire n'a jamais retenu le nom.

 "Immediately, there is a sense of place as the museum is on ground where enslaved women, men and children were kept in slave pens. A dark hallway leads to an encounter with an enslaved woman looking for her children.

To hear her story, her pleas for her lost children, I have to lean close, pressed up against the bars that contain her. I feel anxious, uncomfortable and penned in. Visitors will no doubt linger here, where the enslaved, old and young, appear almost like ghosts.

 "There is power in those who endured slavery. There is a strength in those who found a way to survive in these spaces, despite the threat of violence, despite the threat of terror and violence," Stevenson said.

"There is a dignity and a grace that comes with having to navigate segregation year in, year out. And I feel like, I've got to wrap my arms around that and use it to persuade others that we can do better.""

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lynching-memorial-montgomery-alabama/index.html