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Blood in the Soil: How Equal Justice Initiative Confronts our History of Racial Violence

Equity & Justice

Posted December 2016

College Track students from across the country traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to participate in Equal Justice Initiative's soil collection project.

A group of College Track students traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to learn with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). In addition to visiting locations in the historic city that are key to the history of enslavement and lynching, the students participated in EJI's ongoing soil collection project. Part of The Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, the project allows participants to confront the traumatic realities of the deep South by collecting soil from sites where lynching occurred. The museum has also designed mobile monuments that will be placed across the country to mark these sites and honor the victims.

"There was blood in that soil, there's DNA in that soil," says EJI Director Bryan Stevenson. "There is history in that soil that needs to be resurrected if we're going to really be free in this country."

What's Next

  • Learn more about The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
  • Plan your visit to the museum and memorial.
  • Watch Bryan Stevenson's TED Talk, "We need to talk about an injustice."

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