You may have seen our forthcoming book The Legacy Sites: A History of Racial Injustice in the store and wondered, what actually are the legacy sites? If so here’s a brief explainer that you might find helpful if you’re interested in diving into the book.
The Legacy Sites is a landmark publication by New York Times bestselling author Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative.
Alison Saar, Treesouls II, 1994–2024, unique bronze, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. Photo credit: Human Pictures
It celebrates one of the most important museums and cultural institutions in North America and tells the story of their groundbreaking work in Montgomery, Alabama and beyond.
Interestingly, the book features many of the artists Phaidon and Monacelli have worked with over the years. (Our main image Strike, 2018, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, is by Hank Willis Thomas, Photo credit: Human Pictures)
Sandrine Plante, “WHAT IF...”, 2023, bronze, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. Photo credit: Human Pictures
The three Legacy Sites explored in the book—the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the newest, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park—are truly extraordinary places.
They’re sites of art, memorial, architectural marvel, and especially history. Together in our book, they invite readers to engage deeply with America’s long and ongoing struggle for racial justice.
Simone Leigh, Brick House, 2019, bronze (detail), Freedom Monument
Sculpture Park. Photo credit: Human Pictures
You may be familiar with the work of EJI and its founder Bryan Stevenson from Stevenson’s bestselling 2014 memoir Just Mercy, which sold more than 1.5 million copies in the US; or perhaps you saw the 2019 HBO documentary True Justice; or even the 2019 feature film Just Mercy, starring actor Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson.
Stevenson’s work and that of EJI is known, celebrated, and studied globally for its education efforts on American racial history, its commitment to ending mass incarceration, and challenging racial and economic injustice.
Sandrine Plante, “WHAT IF...”, 2023, bronze, Freedom Monument Sculpture
Park. Photo credit: Human Pictures
The book itself is organized into three immersive chapters—each dedicated to one of the Legacy Sites.
Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, EJI’s newest and most expansive site, overlooking the Alabama River, honors the lives and resilience of enslaved people through outdoor sculpture. Artists featured include: Simone Leigh, Hank Willis Thomas, Wangechi Mutu, Rose B. Simpson, Alison Saar, and a brand new work by artist Charles Gaines.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Photo credit: Stephen Gabris
The Legacy Museum also includes an art gallery with major works from many of the world’s most celebrated Black artists, including those mentioned above along with, Elizabeth Catlett, Gordon Parks, and many more.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, on a hilltop overlooking Montgomery, is the first major memorial dedicated to the legacy of Black Americans who were killed in racial terror lynchings – more than 4,000 people are remembered here in this incredibly powerful memorial of 800 Corten steel monuments.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Photo credit: Human Pictures
Together, these sites form one of the most ambitious and visionary public history projects in the United States.
The book captures not just their physical presence, but their emotional and intellectual impact. While everyone should visit these sites at least once in their life, now, with our new book, there is a way to experience the Legacy Sites without leaving home.
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, Nkyinkyim Installation (detail), 2018, bronze, The Legacy Museum. Photo credit: Stephen Gabris
Take a closer look at The Legacy Sites.
