Sculpture park aims to look honestly at slavery, honoring those who endured it

Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind a serpentine path past art pieces depicting the lives of enslaved people in America and historic exhibits, including two cabins where the enslaved lived, before arriving at a towering monument.

Stretching nearly four stories into the sky, the National Monument to Freedom honors the millions of people who endured the brutality of slavery. The monument is inscribed with 122,000 surnames that formerly enslaved people chose for themselves, as documented in the 1870 Census, after being emancipated at the Civil War’s end.

The sculpture park is the third site created by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., which is dedicated to taking an unflinching look at the country’s history of slavery, racism, and discriminatory policing. The first two sites, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to people slain in racial terror killings, and The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration — opened in 2018.

The sculpture park, which opens on March 27, weaves art installations, historic artifacts, and personal narratives to explore the history of slavery in America and honor the millions of people who endured its brutality.

Bryan Stevenson, the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, said after opening the first two sites that he felt there was more to do. Most plantation tourist attractions, he said, are centered around the lives of the family that did the enslaving. His goal was a place for visitors to have a “really honest experience with the history of slavery.”

“I do see it as a truth-telling space, a place where we can confront parts of our history and paths that are not usually taught,” he said. But he also believes it is ultimately a “hopeful place.”