Equal Justice Initiative opens Montgomery Square

Montgomery Square – Photo from Equal Justice Initiative

The Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative has opened Montgomery Square, its latest Legacy Site downtown.

EJI says Montgomery Square is dedicated to the “Montgomery Decade that Changed the World”, from 1955 to 1965.

That period began with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and concluded with the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March of 1965.

Montgomery Square is located next to the recently-opened Elevation Convening Center and Hotel on Montgomery Street. That area is where marchers took the final leg of their journey from Selma to the Alabama Capitol.

The square includes art, sculpture, photography and new research about Montgomery’s role in changing America.

“We definitely wanted to open this week when so many people are coming to our area to commemorate Jubilee, the anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march,” EJI Founder Bryan Stevenson told Action 8 News.

“It’s also an important time because we’re losing so many of our really cherished leaders — Claudette Colvin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, JoAnne Bland and Dr. Bernard LaFayette. All of these important leaders, these giants and legends have done so much for all of us that we want to now do for them to lift up their voices to celebrate their lives and it couldn’t be at a more momentous time.”

Heroes Hall at the Square will feature films with first-person narratives from notable figures including Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks, E. D. Nixon, Jo Ann Robinson, Fred Gray, John Lewis, Jo Ann Bland, Sheyann Webb Christburg, Amelia Boynton Robinson, and Lynda Blackmon Lowery, along with interviews and speeches from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

EJI is also releasing a new report that highlights the contributions and extraordinary courage of scores of people in this community during the civil rights era who are not well known. The report and accompanying website will provide educators, students, historians, local residents and visitors to our city a deeper insight into Montgomery’s historic role in lifting up human rights and fundamentally changing this nation and the world.

LEARN MORE ABOUT MONTGOMERY SQUARE

The Equal Justice Initiative provides legal assistance to the poor and people wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. EJI also fights food insecurity through a statewide anti-hunger program and provides health care to people who are uninsured. It was founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson.

EJI created and operates the Legacy Sites, which also includes the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery. They chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, racial segregation and the connection to contemporary issues of racial bias.