Equal Justice Initiative announces plans for new park in Montgomery
The Equal Justice Initiative is making plans to construct a new 17-acre Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery.
The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will feature newly commissioned works by several artists.
It will be built on the banks of the Alabama River where tens of thousands of enslaved Black people were trafficked and sold into slavery.
EJI says the purpose is to bring together history and the narrative honoring those who were emancipated after the Civil War.
“We’re now calling our space Legacy Sites to include the memorial, the museum and this monument,” EJI founder Bryan Stevenson told Action 8 News.
“I think it will hopefully bring even more people here and get them to spend more time here in deep reflection. We’re creating these spaces because I believe we need an era of truth-telling about our history and that can yield something really positive, really helpful, really hopeful for our community and we’re just excited to share that with everyone,” he said.
The exact location of the 17-acre park hasn’t yet been revealed.
There will also be a plaza surrounding the national monument which will feature writings from Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and James Weldon Johnson. All projects are set to be completed early 2024.
