美国国家公共电台 NPR--Social justice groups' monuments are a counternarrative to Confederate memorials

Social justice groups' monuments are a counternarrative to Confederate memorials

Transcript¹

Two new monuments in Montgomery, Ala., are meant to provoke racial reckoning in public spaces. The creators hope they can serve as a counternarrative to monuments intended to glorify² the Old South.

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The debate over removing Confederate memorials from the public square has been part of the national conversation for a decade or more. Now two social justice groups are putting up new interactive³ monuments to try to provoke racial reckoning. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE⁴: More than a million people have visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., since it opened four years ago. It's a project of the Equal Justice Initiative that remembers thousands of lynching victims. Their names are etched on 800 steel blocks, one for each U.S. county where racial killings⁵ occurred. The monuments hang from an open-air pavilion on a hilltop overlooking the Montgomery skyline.

(SOUNDBITE OF PARK AMBIENCE)

ELLIOTT: Now director Bryan Stevenson is expanding the memorial.

BRYAN STEVENSON: We call this new section Community Reckoning because it's the way in which communities are asking localities to kind of reckon with this history.

ELLIOTT: Lynching violence was local, Stevenson says. Here, visitors can learn more about some of those killings. Detailed⁶ stories appear on historical markers that look like the ones you might see along a highway. They are duplicates of ones that local groups have erected⁷ around the country, based on research from the initiative.

STEVENSON: This one is in Brighton, Ala. It's about a Black man who was lynched for trying to organize Black workers to get better pay. And as we...

ELLIOTT: There are markers from Orlando, Denver and Tulsa. The new exhibit also includes a sculpture by the artist Branly Cadet called "Arise." It shows community activists⁸. One is speaking into a bullhorn; others appear in prayer or reflection. Stevenson says the models for the piece were all descendants of lynching victims.

STEVENSON: They represent the work that people in communities are doing each and every day to get their locality to reckon with the history of violence that took place.

ELLIOTT: According to the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 300 community coalitions⁹ have put lynching markers in 20 states. But Stevenson says the effort has not been embraced everywhere.

STEVENSON: It's been harder in some communities than others. But I think that's just the nature of trying to respond to a 400-year history of silence. And so I'm not even surprised by the resistance. And you see this new - some of these new efforts to try to ban the teaching of history. But I think that's always been the reaction to progress.

ELLIOTT: He points to the emergence¹⁰ of Jim Crow laws after Reconstruction¹¹ and the violent resistance to the civil rights movement. Activists say the country is at an inflection point again, as more people find their voices after the racial justice protests of 2020.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMMING)

ELLIOTT: Another monument is newly on display in Montgomery, also aimed at advancing the social justice conversation. It's a sculpture called "Blank Slate¹²" by the Ghanian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, my God, I can't believe this is happening now.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: OK, so go ahead and engage with the sign.

ELLIOTT: Four figures are stacked to represent the historical suffering of African Americans. An enslaved man in shackles¹³ is at the base, supporting a Black Union soldier, a noose¹⁴ around his neck. Above him is a woman with a baby on her back. She carries a beacon¹⁵ and holds up an interactive sign that receives messages via a Wi-Fi signal.

MORRIS SINCLAIR: She's holding a blank slate, which means that you can write whatever you want to write on the sign.

ELLIOTT: That's Morris Sinclair with the Blank Slate Movement. He says it embodies¹⁶ resilience.

SINCLAIR: It's like almost as if the civil rights movement has just begun again with the new generation.

MICHELE BROWDER: I'm energized¹⁷ by it.

ELLIOTT: Michele Browder leads civil rights tours in Montgomery.

BROWDER: To see this woman with a baby on her back, holding a lantern, lighting¹⁸ the way, to, you know, the continuation of this movement to let us be free.

ELLIOTT: The "Blank Slate Monument" is touring the country and will be in Montgomery for three months at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Civil Rights Memorial Center. The memorial center's director, Tafeni English, says this sculpture comes as a counternarrative to Confederate monuments and as a response to new state bans on critical race theory instruction and the teaching of what some politicians consider divisive concepts.

TAFENI ENGLISH: How is it that you want to hold on to one segment of history and silence the other?

ELLIOTT: Montgomery bills itself as both the cradle of the Confederacy and the birthplace of the civil rights movement, and there's rich history around nearly every corner. But it's taken decades for sites associated with the slave trade, for instance, to get equal attention to those that glorify the Old South. Now they do.

Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Montgomery, Ala.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 glorify   

vt.颂扬，赞美，使增光，美化

参考例句：

• Politicians have complained that the media glorify drugs.政治家们抱怨媒体美化毒品。
• We are all committed to serving the Lord and glorifying His name in the best way we know.我们全心全意敬奉上帝，竭尽所能颂扬他的美名。

3 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

6 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

7 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。

8 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 coalitions   

结合体，同盟( coalition的名词复数 )； （两党或多党）联合政府

参考例句：

• History testifies to the ineptitude of coalitions in waging war. 历史昭示我们，多数国家联合作战，其进行甚为困难。
• All the coalitions in history have disintegrated sooner or later. 历史上任何联盟迟早都垮台了。

10 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

11 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

12 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

13 shackles   

手铐( shackle的名词复数 )； 脚镣； 束缚； 羁绊

参考例句：

• a country struggling to free itself from the shackles of colonialism 为摆脱殖民主义的枷锁而斗争的国家
• The cars of the train are coupled together by shackles. 火车的车厢是用钩链连接起来的。

14 noose   

n.绳套，绞索（刑）；v.用套索捉；使落入圈套；处以绞刑

参考例句：

• They tied a noose round her neck.他们在她脖子上系了一个活扣。
• A hangman's noose had already been placed around his neck.一个绞刑的绳圈已经套在他的脖子上。

15 beacon   

n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔

参考例句：

• The blink of beacon could be seen for miles.灯塔的光亮在数英里之外都能看见。
• The only light over the deep black sea was the blink shone from the beacon.黑黢黢的海面上唯一的光明就只有灯塔上闪现的亮光了。

16 embodies   

v.表现( embody的第三人称单数 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This document embodies the concern of the government for the deformity. 这个文件体现了政府对残疾人的关怀。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 energized   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的过去式和过去分词 )；使通电

参考例句：

• We are energized by love if we put our energy into loving. 如果我们付出能量去表现爱意，爱就会使我们充满活力。 来自辞典例句
• I am completely energized and feeling terrific. 我充满了活力，感觉非常好。 来自辞典例句

18 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。