Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery documents the experience of enslaved Africans
Bryan Stevenson talks to Lester Holt about his newest project, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, in Montgomery, Alabama.
For civil rights attorney and renowned social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, it’s not enough to know the history of slavery and the centuries-old struggles of Black people in America. He wants people to see it. Feel it. Touch it.
A new park in Montgomery, Alabama, was conceived to do just that, as visitors of the breathtaking Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be treated to “an immersive experience” along 17 acres above the Alabama River, which was a primary route to transport enslaved Africans during the slave trade.
The park, opening next week, will be in close proximity to two other creations led by Stevenson: the awe-inspiring Memorial to Peace and Justice, an open-air site that features 800 columns suspended from above, evoking public square lynchings, and the Legacy Museum. A few miles away in downtown Montgomery, that site uses interactive elements to tell the story of the devastation of slavery, Jim Crow, violence and mass incarceration.
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