Tag Archives: racism

African American Legacy Sites

Equity and Inclusion, Remembering the Past, Public History, , , , , ,

A recent message from Annie Evans of New American History encouraged educators to bring history alive in their lives with a spring break trip to a historic site. Although I’m now retired from teaching, I did that by visiting three amazing African American Legacy sites recently created by the Equal Justice Institute. 

The first site, The Legacy Museum, founded by Bryan Stevenson, originally opened in 2018. An expanded version later reopened in a former cotton warehouse in Montgomery, Alabama, where enslaved people were forced to labor.

We walked to the museum through the Legacy Plaza across the street, a lovely flowered park where one can sit and enjoy statues of MLK, Rosa Parks, and John Lewis.

Bryan Stevenson standing next to metal sculpture of John Lewis
Bryan Stevenson unveiled the John Lewis statue Stride Toward Justice by Basil Watson.
Photo: Mickey Welsh, Montgomery Advertiser, Nov. 12, 2024.
Metal sculpture of a sitting Rosa Parks
Watson’s Rosa Parks statue in Legacy Plaza.
Photo: Savannah Tryens-Fernandes
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Black History Month: Civil Rights Movement

Equity and Inclusion, Public History, Remembering the Past, , ,

I haven’t usually made a big deal of Black History Month. That’s because I feel Black history should be acknowledged year-round, routinely taught in schools, and understood by all Americans.

But in the context of efforts to erase African American history in National Park Service sites, including recent new ones in Philadelphia, and President Trump’s appalling unapologetic sharing of a video depicting the Obamas as apes, I value the month much more.

One aspect of African American history we should appreciate is the centuries-long effort to attain civil rights. While that’s a massive topic, today I’ll focus on the Black civil rights movement during the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s

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