A
network for the memory: more than a hundred places to help us
remember the dramatic years of the Afro-American struggle for civil
rights. At a time when those very rights would appear to be under
threat once more, 14 States, mostly in the country’s “Deep
South,” have created the Civil Rights Trail, an itinerary which
passes through the cities and landmarks that shaped the civil rights
movement: museums, churches, schools, bars, bridges and motels.
The
Trail represents a sort of new movement, both civil and cultural,
created 50 years after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with
the aim of speaking the truth and holding the United States of
America accountable for its past.
The Peace and Freedom Memorial,
which was recently inaugurated in Montgomery, Alabama, is a case in
point. It is dedicated to the 5,000 victims of lynching, and is
helping to break the taboos surrounding the horrific crimes committed
in the name of racial superiority.
The Civil Rights Trail is also
a brave initiative to let the world know that this beautiful and
strong-willed region, which was once the heart of the Confederacy, is
ready for redemption and to reclaim its identity.
Many
American tourists traveling along the Trail (which goes through
Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North and South
Carolina) describe the experience as “shocking” or “exotic,”
as if they were visiting a foreign country for the first time.
And
the Trail isn’t only about the past: many of the old issues still
affect the country, from the denial of voting rights in the case of
several minorities to the students’ battle to tear down Confederate
statues; from the indiscriminate police violence against black people
to the mobilization of young African Americans in the South during
the last midterm elections.
United States
The Civil Rights Trail
Remembering the Afro-American struggle for equality: with an eye on the present