Artifacts from my Alabama pilgrimage
last month. The collage card is by Michelle Browder, artist and leader of MoreThan tours in Montgomery. You can see more of her work at iammorethan7053.com.
Alabama became a state 200 years ago,
and a historical house I visited in Mobile handed out these tokens. Parts of
what became the state were claimed by Georgia, and parts had been what had been
West Florida, and was the site of much land speculation as slavery expanded
into what was at the beginning of the 19th century the southwest frontier. The
Birmingham tie pin celebrates what had been an
industrial city; many of its workers were convict labor, a form of post-bellum
slavery.
That tiny bottle? It contains soil
from the site of the lynching memorial in Montgomery. It echoes an exhibit at
the nearby Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, where the
locations of known lynchings are commemorated with gallon bottles of soil from
each site. Browder collected soil from the site of the National Memorial for
Peace and Reconciliation and presents this memento to tour participants.
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I’m
participating in the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two
Writing Teachers. This is day 1 of the 31-day
challenge. It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a
community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to
slice about. Join in!
I've seen pictures of the gallon bottles in a National Geographic issue on race from last year. It is a powerful project. These artefacts are incredible and the tour seems very thoughtful. Just so you know, your first link under MoreThan is broken. Thank you for sharing!
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