Spaces of memory, scales of memory: The Equal Justice Initiative's marking of lynching from Montgomery to Montevallo and beyond, 2015–2025

Abstract

The existing literature on the Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice tends to draw on site visits made to Montgomery soon after the 2018 opening and so does not discuss the changes that have taken place at the site and elsewhere. This article addresses this gap by offering a longitudinal study of the EJI's evolving memorialisation of lynchings, focusing specifically on their changing scalar emphasis that ranges from the nation, through the county and city to the body. As well as broadening the chronology to signal the dynamic nature of this memorial, it moves beyond the NMPJ and Montgomery to place this within a wider assemblage that includes over a hundred of state historical markers erected across America. Although historical markers have recently attracted the attention of historical geographers, scholars have not paid attention to the EJI's use of this traditional memorial form within their wider memory work, including replicating these within the NMPJ since 2022. Alongside this empirical contribution, the article argues for the need to pay attention to the epistemologies of scale in memory work. The NMPJ and historical markers represent not only different monumental forms in different places, but also different scales of memory work.