Oneness and Hope from a Look at Our True History

By Kaye Edwards

Overwhelming, devastating, informative and a very necessary look at the violent history of enslavement to lynching to wholesale incarceration of the descendants of people kidnapped from their homelands in Africa — these words are hardly adequate to describe my experience at the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

I made the 12-hour bus trip to Montgomery, Ala., with 34 members of my congregation from the Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) here in Indianapolis. Much like the Loretto Community, this congregation is engaged in serious efforts to address the ways we continue to participate in racism and white supremacy. In 1998, the church formed a pro-reconciling/antiracist initiative and created an antiracism transformation team. This team’s mission is to dismantle systemic racism at the church, engage the breadth of the congregation in this work, enhance the capacity of the congregation to participate in this work collectively and equip individual members for antiracism work in the broader world. To that end, the congregation is studying a series of books, and services of worship focus on related topics. We are engaged with and support local efforts already addressing many of the problems. Experiences like this trip to Alabama are being planned to help us look at the broader picture of racism and white supremacy. In addition, there are ongoing small-group discussions called, “The Conversation that Matters.” I share this information with you because I believe visits to this museum and memorial need to take place in the context of ongoing serious work on racism and white supremacy. Absent that context, the trip becomes a sideshow attraction, a curious look at historic horrors from which no change results.

There are many experiences I could share from this trip, but I will limit myself to two that focus on the lynchings from 1877 to 1950. About halfway through the museum, I came to the section that focuses on Jim Crow and the lynchings. Soil is being collected from counties in every state where lynchings are known to have happened. And they didn’t just happen in southern states. The soil is displayed in large mason jars, rows and rows of them, stacked on top of one another. The photo above does not do justice to the hundreds of jars that are displayed, floor to ceiling, on two large walls. I was struck not only by the staggering number of jars, but by the variety of the colors — jet black loam to soft gray clay, light tans, shades of red and orange and brown. All the colors of the skins we wear. From this element of nature we are created, and to this element of nature we return. We are truly one, all created from this one colorful earth.

In the open air of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, I walked slowly among the 800 six-foot cortex steel monuments that represent the thousands of brutally lynched men, women and children. The walk began with the monuments on the ground, and gradually they rose until they were high above my head. As I was looking up at the monuments, a shaft of sunlight came through, illuminating them. I caught this picture, and it set me to thinking of the resilience of these African people, and of their descendants — those who have endured the agony of terrorism for generations. What strength, what courage, what faith and hope they show the world, the same world that still refuses to recognize their humanity. These are the people who are created from the same earth as we with the lightest of soil-colored skins. When, O God? When will we see the hope and choose to live out of the beauty and oneness in Your creation?

For more information visit the Equal Justice Initiative at eji.org. For more information about Central Christian Church (DOC) in Indianapolis, visit indyccc.org.