The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

How do you even write about a place as powerful as this? It's well thought out, well laid out, absolutely beautiful and deeply sorrowful. It's a must-see for every American.

I went during Covid in August, when the memorial was open and the gift shop and theater across the street but not the legacy museum. I had to get a ticket to enter in the gift shop (or I think you can do it online) but it is free to enter. You pass through security and start up a gradual slope past informational signs (of which you need to read every single one) and there's a group of statues on this first slope of a family/group of African slaves. At the top is a covered pavilion with metal boxes that list every county in the US where lynchings have occurred.

At first, I found myself looking for states and counties I was familiar with but as you spiral through the space, the walkway slopes down while the memorials stay level so that you are forced to look at the names themselves. You naturally start to take your attention off yourself and onto the victims. As you spiral down, be sure to read all of the signs that highlight what some of the victims were lynched for. What got me are the crowds for some of them--up to 10-15 THOUSAND people would attend a lynching.

In the bottom-most part, there is a water wall to commemorate all victims that go undocumented. There are steps here and it's a good place to pause and reflect. Exiting the pavilion is a courtyard where all the memorial boxes are placed in rows so you can more easily find your area (because at some point, some of the memorials are too high above you to read) then you circle around past more sculpture and back to the entrance (and a restroom.)

Next to the entrance is a little colorful garden. I found it really helpful to walk around the color and the life after the heaviness of the memorial experience.

Across the street, there is a theater showing short films from the currently closed museum. If you sit through all of them, it's a little more than an hour. (And it's a welcome break from the Alabama heat.)

Currently (started July 21, 2020) you can also visit the memorial at night, Wed-Fri, 9-11. All the signs and statues are well lit and they even give you a little finger light (that you can keep!) to help you look around. The lighting at night is amazing. It illuminates the individual boxes so that the names of the victims glow from within. And overall the effect is almost magical. I recommend going during the day to make sure you can see everything, but a second pass at night is highly recommended.