Freedom Monument Sculpture Park In Montgomery, Alabama — Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama. (Equal Justice Initiative)

A poignant exhibit will soon be unveiled in Alabama’s capital, and it’s garnered national attention ahead of its opening in 2024. The New York Times just featured the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, and here’s what they said.

What the New York Times had to say

The new Freedom Monument Sculpture Park overlooks the Alabama River. (Equal Justice Initiative)

The New York Times article, entitled “Alabama Sculpture Park Aims to Look at Slavery Without Flinching,” spotlights the originality of Montgomery’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, quoting several of its contributors throughout the piece.

The article introduces the coming-soon site as follows:

“When the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opens in Montgomery, Ala., in early 2024, on a bluff flanked by railroad tracks overlooking the Alabama River, visitors will be able to arrive by boat — retracing the footsteps of tens of thousands of Africans horrifically shipped, sold, then transported by rail in the 19th century.”
Hilarie M. Sheets, the New York Times

Bryan Stevenson, the Equal Justice Initiative’s executive director and founder, had a prominent voice in the article. He explained the importance of the site, which will be an authentic, moving experience—a “new cultural space merging art and history on a resonant 17-acre site” as the New York Times said.

The article folded in Stevenson’s powerful story, which started in a “poor rural area in Sussex County, Del.” (New York Times). He went on to attend Harvard, earning his law degree and later founding the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989.

The Equal Justice Initiative, as the New York Times put it, is “a Montgomery-based human rights organization, and the creative force behind this new cultural space…”

The article proceeded to spotlight Montgomery’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum, both of which were opened in 2018 by the Equal Justice Initiative.

The story concludes with a look into some of the stories behind the dozens of sculptures at the park.

About Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

Freedom Monument Sculpture Park Montgomery — Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery. (Equal Justice Initiative)

At the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, guests will be able to have an immersive experience.

“Listen to Muscogee family stories as they were told centuries ago on this very spot. Step inside a train car like those used to traffic enslaved people to Montgomery as you hear trains pass on nearby tracks originally laid by enslaved people. Stand before an authentic dwelling inhabited by enslaved people and marvel at sculptures created from bricks made by enslaved artisans.”
The Legacy Sites

The central part of the park will be the National Monument to Freedom, “which honors four million formerly enslaved Black people who won freedom after the Civil War” (The Legacy Sites). This powerful monument will be 43 feet tall and engraved with over 100,000 names.

Here’s where you’ll be able to find it: