Montgomery’s Legacy Museum expands with new sculpture

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The Equal Justice Initiative will expand its National Memorial for Peace and Justice with a new sculpture.

According to EJI, the new expansion “Community Reckoning” includes a sculpture by artist Branly Cadet that represents thousands of people around the country engaged in community remembrance work. It also includes steel duplicates of nearly 50 marker monuments.

EJI said the sculpture “Arise” dramatizes the work of local citizens helping their communities remember and reckon with history.

“We think it’s important that truth and justice work become local and that every community that has witnessed the horror of lynching reckons with that history through memorialization,” said EJI’s Executive Director Bryan Stevenson. “We are thrilled that so many communities have responded to the invitation to address histories of racial terror and violence since the opening of the National Memorial in 2018.”

EJI opened the new and expanded Legacy Museum in September 2021. Located on a former cotton warehouse site, the museum provides visitors with a comprehensive history of the United States, focusing on legacy and slavery.

The Legacy Museum and accompanying expansions can be found at 400 N. Court Street.

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