From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal.

I'm Al Letson.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama is dedicated to the

victims of white supremacy in America.

And in particular, the thousands of black people who were lynched, it's a striking, open

air pavilion with hundreds of suspended steel columns engraved with thousands of names.

It's important to note that lynching isn't always a hang.

It's any killing where a mob takes the law into its own hands.

The opening of the Memorial and a nearby museum last year drew big crowds and worldwide attention.

The Legacy Museum and Memorial provides a mirror to face some of the ugliness in this country's

past.

For there's no way we can heal until we first acknowledge and address our wounds.

This is what this memorial says out to do.

Reporter Stephanie Stokes came here a few months after the memorial opened.

It's an emotional experience.

It's pretty overwhelming.

You pass through all of these columns with the names of victims of lynching and you grasp

the immensity of this part of our country's history.

Stephanie reports on inequality and racial discrimination for public radio station W-A-B-E

in Atlanta.

So when she found the names of lynching victims from Atlanta, some of the information was

pretty familiar to her.

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