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The sculpture park provides an uncompromising look at the faces and lives of enslaved Americans

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Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind along a winding path past artwork depicting the lives of enslaved people in America and historical exhibits, including two cabins where enslaved people lived, before reaching the massive monument.

Stretching almost 4 stories up, the National Freedom Monument pays tribute to the thousands and thousands of individuals who experienced the brutality of slavery. The monument includes 122,000 names that formerly enslaved people selected for themselves, as documented in the 1870 census after emancipation at the end of the Civil War.

The sculpture park is the third space created by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, to take an uncompromising look at the nation’s history of slavery, racism and discriminatory policing. The first two sites – the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to those killed in racially motivated terrorist killings; and Heritage Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration – opened in 2018.

Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
“Black Renaissance”, Rayvenn D’Clark, bronze, 2023 during a media tour of the Equal Justice Initiative’s recent Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Montgomery, Alabama (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

The sculpture park, which opens on March 27, brings together art installations, historical artifacts and personal narratives to explore the history of slavery in America and pay tribute to the thousands and thousands of individuals who experienced its brutality.

After opening the first two sites, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, said he still had quite a bit of work to do. Most of the plantation’s tourist attractions, he said, focus on the lives of the family that enslaved them. His goal was to create a spot where visitors could “really honestly experience the history of slavery.”

“I see it as a space to tell the truth, a place where we can confront parts of our history and paths that are not usually taught,” he said. But he also believes that ultimately it’s “a place full of hope.”

“If people find a way to create a family and a future despite the horrors of this institution, then we can do something comparable in our time to create a future less burdened by these histories than I think,” Stevenson said.

The 17-acre site is nestled between the winding banks of the muddy waters of the Alabama River and railroad tracks, two transportation mechanisms utilized in the nineteenth century to bring people to the city’s slave markets. Visitors will give you the option to reach by boat, essentially following the same route used to move stolen and trafficked goods.

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The park opens as some politicians, including in the Deep South, attempt to set parameters for a way race and history are taught in classrooms and during staff training sessions. Stevenson argues that such denial has at all times accompanied progress.

“I see this as a form of desperate act to keep up the silence, the established order and the burden of bigotry that we have now handled for therefore long. And I just do not believe it is going to succeed because the truth is powerful,” Stevenson said.

The sculpture park features major works by artists similar to Simone Leigh. Leigh’s Brick House, a 15-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman, is a robust presence of force at the entrance to the garden.

In Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s work entitled Mama, I Hurt My Hand, a toddler dragging a bag of cotton reaches out to indicate the injured hand to the mother who’s balancing a basket of cotton and a baby strapped to her back. Next to them sits an exhausted, drained man with scarred skin and a broken leg.

Exhibits include two 170-year-old cabins that housed enslaved families on a cotton plantation, a whipping post, chains used to carry human traffickers, and replicas of a transport wagon and slave pen. Interspersed amongst the exhibits are first-person accounts of enslaved and formerly enslaved people about their lives.

Alison Saar, a Los Angeles sculptor, has a chunk in her garden that “relates to runaway slaves and their ability to survive and thrive on their own,” she said.

“I think all of this is incredible and needed more than ever,” Saar said. Visitors to the park will come across sculptures that depict “not only the horrors of being enslaved, but the truly beautiful stories and glory of the people who somehow escaped it and created a life of their own.”

The centerpiece of the park is the National Freedom Monument, whose name comes from the 1870 census by which formerly enslaved people reported their names.

Visitors can walk up, find their family name and touch it, seeing their very own faces reflected in the polished granite – an experience Stevenson himself experienced recently when more names were carved into the stone.

“I came in, saw my name and was surprised by the impact it had on me, even though I had been planning it for two years,” he said.

EJI is a legal organization perhaps best known for its work to free those wrongly sentenced to death – which is the subject of the 2019 film starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, based on Stevenson’s best-selling book “Just Mercy.”

The organization erected the first historic markers in downtown Montgomery years ago to mark slave market and lynching sites throughout the South.

Stevenson said truth and confrontation with history are key to America’s progress, likening it to an alcoholic who must acknowledge the harm he has caused through abuse to be able to move on.

“I feel there’s something higher waiting for us. I feel there’s something that’s more like freedom, equality, justice. But I do not think we will achieve this unless we break down the barriers and burdens that our silence about history has created,” Stevenson said.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Education

Mississippi College changes name and eliminates football program

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Mississippi College embraces its Christian ideology with a name change.


Mississippi College, a non-public institution, is changing its name to Mississippi Christian College. The decision was approved by the Mississippi Board of Supervisors on November 18.

The university can be eliminating its Division 1 football team in an effort to prioritize academic offerings. In an announcement, the university cited the upcoming bicentenary because the inspiration for the changes.

Mississippi Christian College wants to construct on its Christian ideology, in line with President Bake Thompson.

“These transformational and necessary changes are critically important to the future of this institution. As we look ahead to the institution’s bicentennial in 2026, we want to ensure that MC is a university recognized for academic excellence and commitment to Christ for another 200 years.”

The college is rededicated to making a space where Christian education stays a priority.

“The institution may even undergo restructuring. A brand new structure will likely be introduced, which can mix the College of Christianity and Art with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the College of Pedagogy will change its name to the College of Pedagogy and Human Sciences. The chancellor was charged with evaluating the potential consolidation of a limited number of educational departments on campus.

Mississippi Christian Athletic Director Kenny Bizott reaffirmed his commitment to former student-athletes.

“We will support our current student-athletes who wish to continue their education at MC, as well as those who wish to transfer,” Bizott added.

Many may view these changes as extreme, but Mississippi Christian believes that every latest organizational change will help the institution fulfill its core functions.

Another Mississippi institution can be within the news for its failures on the legislative level. reported the Mississippi State Senate no payment Legislative Services Office (LSO) attorney Kristie Metcalfe is paid commensurate along with her peers.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi LSO on Metcalfe’s behalf. An office investigation found that Metcalfe was earning half the salary of white LSO lawyers. The investigation also found that Metcalfe is the one non-white worker employed within the office’s 34 years of operation. Race discrimination violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Florida education officials report hundreds of books pulled from school libraries, including Toni Morrison, Richard Wright and Maya Angelou

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” “Forever” by Judi Blume. “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut.

According to the newest information, all of them have been withdrawn from the shelves of some Florida schools list developed by the Florida Department of Education and containing books removed by local school districts.

Recent changes in state law have made it possible for fogeys and residents to take this motion challenge books to school libraries and required districts to submit an annual report to the state detailing which books were restricted of their schools. Florida continues to steer the nation in withdrawing books from school libraries, in accordance with an evaluation by the American Library Association and the advocacy group PEN America.

“Restricting access means limiting the freedom to read,” said Kasey Meehan of PEN America. “Students are losing the opportunity to access books that reflect their own life experiences, to access books that help them learn and to empathize with people who… have different life experiences.”

The list, published for the 2023-2024 school yr, includes titles by American literary icons similar to Maya Angelou, Flannery O’Connor and Richard Wright, in addition to books which have turn into top targets for censorship across the country as a consequence of LGBTQ+ characters, discussions about gender and sexuality and descriptions of sexual encounters, e.g. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson and “Gender Queer” by Maja Kobabe. Supporters of conservatism have described such content as “pornographic.”

The list of books removed from libraries also includes Holocaust accounts similar to “The Diary of Anne Frank: A Graphic Adaptation” and “Sophie’s Choice.” It’s an analogous story with the graphic novel, an adaptation of “1984,” George Orwell’s groundbreaking work on censorship and surveillance.

“Everywhere from Toni Morrison to Alice Walker to Slaughterhouse-Five to George Orwell,” said Stephana Farrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which tracks book challenges within the state. “If you take the time to look through this list, you will see that there is a problem with… this movement.”

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In an announcement to the Associated Press, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Education maintained that no books have been banned in Florida and defended the state’s efforts to remove “sexually explicit material” from schools.

“Once again, far-left activists are promoting the book ban scam to Floridians. “The better question is why these activists continue to fight to expose children to sexually explicit material,” spokeswoman Sydney Booker said.

The list shows that the number of book withdrawals varies widely across the state, with some districts reporting no restrictions and others reporting hundreds of titles pulled from shelves. Farrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project said that based on the group’s evaluation of public records, the department’s report is an undercount since it doesn’t include books removed in consequence of an internal staff review, only those withdrawn in consequence of a grievance filed by a parent or resident.

Farrell believes that almost all Florida parents want their children to have broad access to literature.

“We live in a country where parental rights should be recognized, heard and taken into account,” Farrell said. “We are asking for accountability and an accurate record of the impact of these laws on our children and what is available to them.”

Schools have restricted access to dozens of books by Stephen King, a master of the horror genre known for bestsellers similar to “It” and “Pet Sematary.” Clay County officials also found his book, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” inappropriate for college kids.

King, who spends part of the yr in Florida, talked about attempting to get his books out of students’ hands, urging readers to run to the closest library or bookstore.

“What the hell?” In August, King posted on social media reacting to the choice of some Florida schools to drag his books from shelves.

Multiple school districts in Florida have filed legal challenges for restricting students’ access to books, including Escambia County, which is being sued by PEN America and Random penguin housethe biggest publisher within the country.

Nassau County School District in September settled lawsuit brought by the authors of “And Tango Makes Three,” an image book based on the true story of two male penguins who raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Under the terms of the settlement, the district needed to return three dozen books to the shelves.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Issa Rae meets with Georgia law students

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Issa Rae, georgia state university

Rae will speak to students about legal issues related to her success.


Georgia State University College of Law announced that Issa Rae will meet with students to debate the legal elements of her successful profession as a part of the course “The Legal Life of Issa Rae.”

On November 7, the producer-actress will hold a hearing at Rialto Art Center. The visit is the culmination of a course exploring Rae’s decades-long profession within the entertainment industry. Rae’s profession provides a wealth of legal diversity to explore as her profession extends beyond visual entertainment.

The classes are held as a part of the “Legal Life…” series. The series was created by George State University law professor Moraima “Mo” Ivory.

As a professor at Georgia State College of Law, Ivory curated a series that examined the legality of maintaining a prestigious profession. As reported, Rae is a course subject this semester BLACK ENTERPRISES.

The creator’s team worked with Ivory to take an in depth take a look at the contracts that helped Rae secure her deals.

“With the support of her team, we will also have the unique opportunity to analyze her real-world deals and discuss how her approach to deals is shaping today’s entertainment landscape. We are incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity,” Ivory told .

It was classy access for 10 years value of contractual agreements to be analyzed.

“This is the first class where every contract was an actual contract with the artist,” Ivory said. “Students can see how real deals actually happen and what real entertainment lawyer Issa Rae has been doing over the last 10 years.”

Ivory, a professor and Fulton County commissioner, believes that the language of the law is vital and that the power to see the language in connection with a noteworthy product allows students to beat the barrier of unfamiliarity.

“You have to look at what people are actually doing and what is happening at the moment. The more familiar they become with the language, the faster they will be able to master it and start representing clients.”

According to Ivory, Rae’s family and business partners were instrumental in checking out the complicated details of her business. The course was attended by “Rae’s mother, siblings, network executives and members of her staff.”

The longtime artist began her profession on YouTube with “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” The show’s success led to a collaboration with host Larry Wilmore and a multi-show deal with HBO. Outside of television, Rae is a successful actress and producer of many shows including (2022). She also created her own media company HooRae media and music label Raedio.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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