America Can Do Better - Reflections from My 2023 FTNE
Going on the Freedom Trail Excursion was a life-changing event for me. All the new friends and connections I made, the new foods and cultures I experienced, and the powerful stories and lessons I learned - these are all profound things I will remember for a long time. One specific experience that still deeply resonates with me is our visit to The National Memorial for Peace and Justice on the third day of the trip.
We had just left the EJI Legacy Museum, where I learned so much about the unsettling and morbid history of the slave trade and the legacy of the Jim Crow Era. With the fresh knowledge of what so many African Americans had experienced for generations--and the first-hand stories and vivid photos to back them up--I did not know what to expect at the Memorial. All I knew was it was dedicated to those who had been lynched. Knowing what it was dedicated to and seeing photographs of actual lynchings in the museum, nothing could have prepared me for what I would see.
Name after name, rectangle after rectangle, row after row, it was hard to grasp the scale of what I was seeing. Every single name engraved into a rusty, steel rectangle had been a human being terrorized by white supremacy and ultimately killed because of the color of their skin. I would pause to read each name initially, noticing how some were on the same day or how one rectangle contained many more names than those around it. I had to stop pausing as after half an hour; I was only a quarter of the way through the Memorial. Going along the path, we eventually reached the waterfall section. Going down the sloped path, I would read the numerous plaques along the wall. A man was killed for not calling an officer “mister.” A family was murdered after the father argued with a white woman. A woman and her unborn child were lynched after “complaining” about her husband’s lynching. Innocent people were going through life, yet for some reason, it was decided that was enough to kill them. I read one of a man lynched for asking a white woman for water. I began to imagine myself, thirsty and simply wanting water - how I would have the innocent request for a glass of water too. I could not grasp how this would lead to my death or how all the little things described in the plaque would lead to anyone’s death. I admit, I cried. It was overwhelming to be there, so I continued walking, thinking about all the stories I read. Walking past the hundreds of rusty steel rectangles, each with a name and its own personal tragedy to tell.
We’re supposed to live in a country where people aren’t killed because of the color of their skin and where those who kill innocent people are held accountable. But that simply isn’t the case. Rather than being killed for asking for water, it’s for using an alleged counterfeit $20 bill (George Floyd). Rather than being killed for not using the term “mister,” it’s for being homeless and confused on a subway (Jordan Neely). When will we move past the disturbing truth of our country’s founding? Can we move past the disturbing truth of our country’s founding and do better? America, when will we do better?
