EJI Dedicates Montgomery Square

More than 300 people joined EJI today for the dedication of our newest site, Montgomery Square, which opened earlier this month in downtown Montgomery next to the Elevation Convening Center and Hotel.

Building on our existing Legacy Sites, the new site is dedicated to the Montgomery Decade That Changed the World. From 1955 to 1965, Black residents with extraordinary courage and determination stood up against racial injustice here in Montgomery and sparked a movement that transformed our country and the world.

At the dedication, we recognized the next generation of Montgomery activists and leaders with a performance from Booker T. Washington Magnet High School's choir, led by award-winning Choir Director Milton Williams.

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed spoke on behalf of the city council. "I wouldn't be here without all of the people who helped change this city," Mr. Reed said. He is the first Black mayor of Montgomery.

"Your presence affirms the significance of this moment," he told the audience. "It reminds us that what we commemorate today reaches far beyond our city limits. It speaks to all who believe in truth, reflection, and unifying power of community."

The mayor thanked EJI for transforming Montgomery into a city that has become known worldwide as the foremost destination for learning about America's history of racial injustice and its legacy.

Announcing the Montgomery Memory Project

EJI Director Bryan Stevenson used the occasion to make an important announcement about our new Montgomery Memory Project, which is recording video interviews with community members who lived in the Montgomery area between 1955 and 1965 and have personal memories of the time period.

A number of esteemed Montgomery residents have already shared their stories with our MMP team. Excerpts from their interviews are showcased on our Montgomery Square website. Many attended the dedication, where Mr. Stevenson acknowledged and thanked each of them for sharing their extraordinary experiences and reflections.

Mr. Stevenson announced that we are inviting anyone who lived through the Montgomery Decade That Changed the World to participate in the Montgomery Memory Project. Please call the MMP team at 334-269-1803 or email us at [email protected] for more information.

Grammy and Stellar Award-winning gospel artist Le'Andria Johnson gave a powerful performance that brought the crowd to its feet to join her in singing "We Shall Overcome."

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Honoring the Courage and Tenacity of Montgomery's Black Community

Bryan Stevenson spoke about the history detailed at Montgomery Square, including police violence against Black women in the 1940s and killings of Hilliard Brooks and two more Black men on city buses in the 1950s for which no one was held accountable.

The buses were unavoidable places of humiliation, violence, and degradation-and by 1955, people in this community had had enough. Starting in March with the arrest of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin for refusing to give up her bus seat, three more Black women who were asked to move for white people said no and were arrested. Then, on December 1, thinking about the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat. Like the women before her, she said no, and was arrested, Mr. Stevenson said.

"That was the moment that the people in this community did something unprecedented," he continued, explaining that no organized resistance had ever worked before. But people in Montgomery stayed off the buses for 382 days-and birthed the civil rights movement. A decade of activism, from sit-ins to swim-ins, and countless nonviolent demonstrations, including the March on Washington, followed.

By 1965, civil rights organizers had their sights set on voting rights. Mr. Stevenson explained that no Black people had been allowed to register to vote in Lowndes or Wilcox counties; only 2% of eligible Black voters had managed to register in Dallas County; and even with all of the activism in Montgomery, only 17% of eligible Black voters were allowed to vote there.

Voting rights activists organized in Selma, where they were beaten and bruised and bloodied on March 7, 1965-but they did not give up. They kept going until thousands of people made the 54-mile march to Montgomery, right down the street that borders Montgomery Square. Just months after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told marchers at the Capitol that it would not be long before they secured the right to vote, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.

"For every person in this country," Mr. Stevenson said, "America became more just, a nation more committed to equality, to liberty, and to justice."

"We've Come Too Far to Turn Around Now"

Montgomery Square honors the spirit, the lives, the courage, and the tenacity of all the Black people in this community who, together, changed our nation, Mr. Stevenson said. "We've also come here today," he continued, "to say to America that we've come too far to turn around now."

Once again, here in Montgomery, he said, we have to be the community that says no-to banning books and erasing American history. "Montgomery has become the city in this country that is doing the most to educate people about the legacy of slavery," Mr. Stevenson said. "We've got to lift our nation up."

Mr. Stevenson then invited the BTW choir to join him, along with Dr. Jeanette Howard-Moore and Ms. Margaret Howard, who were courageous foot soldiers in Selma, and Dr. Viola Bradford, who led everyone in a freedom song to conclude the program.

Here in Montgomery, we honored the architects of the civil rights movement by linking arms and singing together, just as they did, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round."