Unequivocal Praise for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opened in April, are worthy memorials to one of the nation's greatest tragedies, according to this review.

1 minute read

September 4, 2018, 2:00 PM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Equal Justice Initiative

DiAnna Paulk / Shutterstock

Mark Lamster, architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News, reviews the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, calling the latter, "most important work of 21st century American architecture" and "the most successful memorial design since the 1982 debut of Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C."

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is more commonly referred to as a "memorial for victims of lynching," explains Lamster to provide another frame for understanding the purpose of the facility. The memorial also "behooves a pilgrimage" to Montgomery—"something close to a moral imperative."

The article provides more description of the emotional power conveyed by the memorial and gives credit to the institutions and designers responsible for the new facilities.

"The museum and memorial are the public face of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery-based nonprofit that confronts racial discrimination in the legal system. Their design is a collaboration between that institution and another nonprofit, Boston-based MASS Design Group, an architecture and design firm founded in 2008 with the mantra 'justice is beauty' and the express purpose of advancing human dignity."

For more insight into the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, see also an article from July by Allyson Hobbs and Neil Freudenberger.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018 in The Dallas Morning News

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