EJI Memorial

And he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him, and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.Acts 10:28

Over the course of many decades, there has been a system of silence that has prevented our nation from healing from its pain.  In Montgomery, Alabama there are 100's of monuments dedicated to the remembrance of the Confederacy, but few that honor the families who lost members at the hands of the lynch mobs. 

Just in Alabama alone, 326 African-American's were lynched in the past 73 years.  

In the state of Mississippi, there have been a total of 581 lynchings of African-American men.  Yet, we wouldn't know it because of the lack of monuments to remind us of that reality. 

Yet, all throughout the south, we would rather celebrate the Confederate flag as a source of pride while forgetting the pain that flag represented to thousands of families of the African-American race.

 Behind that flag are African-American families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the lynch mobs- some of whom celebrate the Confederacy as a source of pride. The summer my wife and I toured the Civil rights museum and as we read about the darker side of the Confederacy, I literally got sick to my stomach thinking about the sin of racism hiding behind the flag.  I felt the same emotion as I walked through the Holocaust museum with my headphones plugged in wondering if the person, who's card I was holding in my hand would be the one who would live or die.

I know when I see this memorial, my heart will be heavy with many tears falling down my cheeks.

  For others who never saw the impact of these lynchings, this memorial will help them to confront this wretched racism and help them heal from the haunting images of what white supremacists did to these men and in some cases boys.

This memorial has the potential of healing our nation for it would place a face on those who suffered and died in this manner, and for once force us to confront the evils of racism- something that God certainly doesn't look at with pride.  

When it opens, I for one will be there to see and experience the emotions of it.