Yesterday was a day of blown away and shaken. I'd known since I left New Orleans on Mardi Gras Day that Bill and Glenn were planning on taking me with them to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
While I consider myself well-read, aware, and have co-taught diversity courses; this museum taught me, slapped me, overwhelmed me, and showed me the true picture of grave injustices.
I was often in tears. My heart was leaden. Everyone must see this museum.
There is so much that it is difficult to know where to begin. The installation that had the greatest impact on me was entitled: "Lynchings." Turning a corner, I saw this tall, thin, white on black, board. I thought it was the only one.
As I went a little further, there were more and more and more that listed the names of those lynched, the location, and other grave injustices committed against them.
All of these lynchings had been committed in Mississippi.
As I walked along this wall of front and back listings on each pillar, I had feelings similar to those that I experienced for the first time when I walked down into the black marble of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, DC.
Both evoked feelings of walking down into a very deep and overwhelming grave.
We spent almost the whole afternoon in the museum and still didn't see everything. The amount and depth of feeling was overwhelming and exhausting for me. There is so much more to share and I will.
The eyes of Medgar Evers spoke to me!
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.