In a moving spoken word Prince EA speaks a truth we all need to be reminded of.
While many inequalities are far in our past, some remnants still remain. As another progressive Black History Month has come to a close, One Planet Group is proud to announce that we happily support the memorial with a $100,000 commitment to the Equal Justice Initiative. The money donated will go towards the first US memorial to injustice which architect Michael Murphy introduced at the TED 2016 conference in Vancouver.
Between the years of 1877 and 1950, over 4,000 African Americans were lynched during one of the most racially charged and brutally damaging pockets of American history. Murphy, who was accustomed to building hospitals and clinics was inspired by Brian Stevenson’s past TED Talk on injustice, and decided to partner with the civil rights leader on the project.
The proposed Memorial to Peace and Justice, will be located on a hill in Montgomery, Alabama. It will contain rows and columns hanging from a roof. There are also columns left blank that will be filled with the names of the victims as they are researched and discovered.
“Over the next few years, this site will bear witness as each of these markers is claimed and visibly placed in those counties,” project designer Michael Murphy said in his presentation. “Our nation will begin to heal from over a century of silence.”
Murphy is known to promote healing through architecture. In 2006, Murphy built a hospital in Rwanda on a site that was formerly known for being the place of genocidal violence. The same way that building has allowed some healing to take place for Rwandan locals, so Murphy hopes will this memorial for those who suffered at the hands of lynchers in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In the words of Abdu'l Baha:
The world of humanity is like a garden and the various races are the flowers which constitute its adornment and decoration. In the animal kingdom also we find variety of color. See how the doves differ in beauty yet they live together in perfect peace, and love each other. They do not make difference of color a cause of discord and strife. They view each other as the same species and kind. They know they are one in kind. Often a white dove soars aloft with a black one. Throughout the animal kingdom we do not find the creatures separated because of color. They recognize unity of species and oneness of kind. If we do not find color distinction drawn in a kingdom of lower intelligence and reason, how can it be justified among human beings, especially when we know that all have come from the same source and belong to the same household? In origin and intention of creation mankind is one. Distinctions of race and color have arisen afterward. –Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 34.
