The Anderson Area Remembrance and Reconciliation Initiative (AAR&RI) traveled to Montgomery, Alabama on March 17, 2023 to deliver the five jars of soil representing the five documented victims on lynching in Anderson County. Members from AAR&RI Steering Committee, members Anderson University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and numerous Anderson County community met with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and took part in a short ceremony commemorating this significant event.
The ceremony was a part of a longer visit where all the attendees were able to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, have lunch at Pannie-George’s Kitchen, and finally visit the Legacy Museum. Pannie-George’s Kitchen is a soul food restaurant run by award-winning chefs from Auburn, Alabama, provides a new and outstanding dining option for visitors and locals in downtown Montgomery.
The Legacy Pavilion features a monument to women, men, and children who were victims of racial terror lynchings in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and during Reconstruction. The monument memorializes over 2,000 people who were lynched between 1865 and 1876. This new monument connects to two other prominent EJI memorials in Montgomery: the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which documents the era of racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950, and the Monument at the Peace and Justice Memorial Center, which honors victims of racial terror lynchings or violence during the 1950s.
If you would like to see view all the pictures from this trip, click here: https://photos.rettewcreative.com/eji-trip-au-aarri-3-17-2023/