I had unfinished business in “The Reflection Room” of the EJI (Equal Justice Initiative). So on my 2nd visit to Montgomery this past week-end, I found a huge amount of growth, in that first, “The Legacy Museum: From Slavery To Mass Incarceration” had been relocated from the “Slave Market” Building, to this all new 1st of Three separate exhibit locations. And when I found The Reflection Room, I marveled to the Usher how demonstratively greater this Exhibit had become in being moved. She said that upward of 100+ New Portraits had been added!
Knocked off my feet, I sat down and began to write… each Name pictured. In my Right columns of notes, I scribed those who I knew their histories; among them some of personal knowledge… Joseph Lowery, Howard Thurman, C. T. Vivian… Those persons names that I had no knowledge at all, to know who they are, least wise to know why Bryan Stevenson placed them among Africans born in America’s Freedom History —I scribed Left columns. While I thought that here I would put them in alphabetical order, I question meaning to the order that they appear on the wall? So the order, just as I wrote them remains. They are:
Vivian Malone Jones. Sarah Parker Remond. Henry Blair. Abraham Galloway. Sengbe Pieh. Deborah Batts. Clyde Kinnard. Juanita Jackson Mitchell. Marsha P. Johnson. Vernon Darmer. Henry Highland Garnett. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin. James McCune Smith. Louis Allen. Ethel Payne. Johnny Carr. Verina Morton Jones. Mahommah Baquaqua. Delilah L. Beasley. Octavius Cato. Elijah McCoy. George W. Lee. Samuel Spotford Clement. Gertrude Bastill Mossey.
Vernon Johns. Elma Lewis. Robert Scott Smalls. Lewis Hayden. E. D. Nixon. Mae Berthina Carter. Timuel D. Black Jr. Addie Wyatt. Thomas James. Alfred Oscar Coffin. Peter Randolph. JoAnn Robinson. Lucy Goode Brooks. James Orange. Florence B. Price. Mary Virginia Cooke Parrish. Blanche K. Bruce. John Merrick. Sarah Margu Kinson. Laura Wheeler Waring. Maude Leterita Williams-Ballou. Augusta Savage. Nella Larsen. Lila Fenwick.
Harriet Jacobs. Thomas William Burton. Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason. Annie Mae Young. Marie M. Daley. Ernestine Eckstein. James Walker Hood. Eliza Ann Grier. John Adams Hyman. Jose Antonio Aponte. Amelia Boynton Robinson. Charles Dewit Watts. Charlotte Forten Grimke. Harry T. Moore. Margaret Morgan Lawrence. Patrick Francis Heally. Benjamin W. Arnett. Francis Johnson. Cathay Williams. Eva B. Dykes. Matte J. Jackson. Aileen Hernandez. Jefferson Franklin Long. Mamie Phipps Clark. Aurelia Browder.
Sarah Mae Flemming. Charlotte Lottie Rollin. William Wells Brown. Bernadette Cary Smith. Lucie Times. Elizabeth Evelyn Wright. Kwame Braithwaite. Rosylyn Pope. Harold Brown. Dorothy Pittman Hughs. Charles Ogletree. Randall Robinson. Autherine Lucy. Mildred Loving. Samuel Burris. Wiley Austin Branton, John Mercer Langston. Esther Cooper Jackson. Melvin King. Elizabeth Jennings Graham. John Willis Menard. Angie Turner King. Mary Elizabeth Branch. Lamar Smith. George Cleveland Hall. Mary Bowser.
Susie McDonald. Mary E. Britton. Dorothy Lavinia Brown. Lucy Ann Stanton. Fannie Cobb Carter. Fannie Barrier Williams. Anna Gold Hedgeman. George Lewis Ruffin. Gwendolyn Bennett. Daniel Hale Williams. Charles Hamilton Houston. Alexander Crummell. Hariet Bell Hayden. Gloria Richardson. Juanita J. Craft. Samuel W. Tucker. Patricia Stephens Due. Lucy Diggs Lowe. Lucille H. Bluford. Lani Guinier. Oretha Castle Haley. Alice Allison Dainnigan. John Stewart Rock. Elizabeth Catlett. Mary Elizabeth Lang.
Anne Maria Weems. George B. Caslon. Mary Jane Patterson. Elijah P. Marrs. Lucy Ann Delaney. James Johnson. Louise De Morte. Scipio Africanus Jones. Maria W. Stewart. Susan McKinney Stewart. Harriet Robinson Scott. Mary Jane Richardson Jones. Ebenezar Bassett. Carol Still Anderson. Anna Julia Cooper. Elizabeth Keckley. Halley Quina Brown. Evelyn Thomas Butts. Charles S. Johnson. McCree Harris. Oliver Hill, Sr. Alexander Thomas Augusta. Charles R. Douglass. Lewis Douglas. Annie Lee Cooper.
“We are haunted by our history of racial injustice in America because we don’t talk about it. Ending mass incarceration and achieving equality, justice, and fairness for all Americans starts with learning and sharing the truth about our past.” Bryan Stevenson
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