Everybody wants to think that if they were alive during slavery, they’d be an abolitionist. Everybody wants to think that if they were active during the time of lynching, they’d be rallying against and trying to prevent lynchings. Most of us believe that if we were alive and in a position to march in the 1950s, we’d be on the side of Dr. King. But today, we are in the face of all of these problems. One in three black male babies is expected to go to jail or prison. There are these constant shootings of unarmed black people. And the question is: If we’re not prepared to respond to these issues, if we’re not prepared to act today, then I don’t think we can claim that we would have acted any differently during slavery and lynching and segregation.

Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative, the nonprofit behind the first-ever national memorial to victims of lynching in the United States, in Montgomery, Alabama. See the full interview, starting with Part 1: “Talking About History Is Way We Liberate America”: New Memorial Honors Victims of White Supremacy
(via democracynow)

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