The Equal Justice Initiative

In Montgomery, Alabama, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has built The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It memorializes lynching victims all over the United States. In the memorial, there is a hanging column for each county with the names of the lynching victims in that county. A field outside is filled with identical columns. The goal is to guide communities with documented lynchings through the reconciliation process by collecting a jar of soil from the lynching site. The jars are then put in the EJI Museum, and the community moves the column from the museum to a place in their county.

We have found that Wake County has had only one recorded lynching. George Taylor was lynched on November 5th of 1918 for allegedly assaulting Mrs. Ruby Rogers of Rolesville, NC. To get the column with Taylor's name moved to Wake County, we have been asked to send the EJI a Mason jar full of soil from the site of the lynching. These jars of soil will be put into a museum. As the Wake County Truth and Reconciliation Committee, we have found the site of the lynching and decided that to represent reconciliation, we will collect a bit of soil from properties across Wake County.

"A Lynching Memorial is Opening..." New York Times, April 26, 2018.

A News and Observer article from January 30th, 2019, with a front page article about the EJI:

Link to Article

January Southern Living article about the Equal Justice Initiative