To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing Dumonde (Slam) Dunkley’s “Celebration of Genocide.” It is an eloquent wake-up call.

I had the privilege of visiting the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama this past August. It remembers and honors men and women who were lynched during the Jim Crow era, by name, date, and county—or perhaps as “Unknown” with date on a specific county pillar. The day I walked through this immense memorial no one spoke. We were stunned into silence.

Along with the museum to the history of slavery in the United States, this is a project of Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). Why undertake such a project?

“Our nation’s history of racial injustice casts a shadow across the American landscape. This shadow cannot be lifted until we shine the light of truth on the destructive violence that shaped our nation…” —Bryan Stevenson.

Atrocities of many kinds committed against indigenous peoples, as well as the enslaving and lynching of African Americans, are part of the shameful history we must own if we are ever to recover and live in peace.

Not deny, not ignore—own. Otherwise….

–Elizabeth Linehan, RSM Professor Emerita of Philosophy