Digital resources expand engagement with history of racial injustice

Two important new institutions have just opened to the public, both dedicated to advancing truth and reconciliation around racism in America. They are the work of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a leading nonprofit organization that Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation is proud to support through its Creative Enterprise portfolio—part of the Foundation’s broader Made for Good program, which strengthens the capacity of socially motivated organizations to effect positive change.

Founded in 1989, EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment and to challenging racial and economic injustice. The Foundation is supporting EJI with a grant to develop accompanying online curricula and teaching tools, to expand the reach of the new educational hubs beyond their physical sites in Montgomery, Alabama.

Specifically, grant funds will support the development of resources (to be used by educators and others) for EJI’s ‘Resistance to Civil Rights’ body of work, and will expand access to EJI’s forthcoming speaker series, via webinars, webcasts and other virtual platforms.

The two new institutions, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, are part of EJI’s ambitious effort to end the silence about the history of racial injustice and terror in America and its enduring ramifications today.

The Legacy Museum, located steps from what was once one of the most prominent slave markets in America, takes visitors on a journey through our nation’s difficult past and traces relationships to a range of contemporary issues. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice honors the lives of more than 4,400 African Americans who were lynched from 1877 to 1950.

Like the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, which served as inspiration for these new sites, the museum and memorial are meant to promote a more hopeful commitment to racial equality and move visitors to say, “Never again.”

Bryan Stevenson, founding director of EJI, said, "I'm hopeful that sites like the ones we are building and conversations like the ones we're organizing will empower and inspire people to have the courage to create a more just and healthy future. We can achieve more in America when we commit to truth-telling about our past."

Deutsche Bank CSR will host Stevenson for a Thought Leaders Forum at 60 Wall Street later this year. He is a celebrated public interest lawyer and author of the award-winning book Just Mercy.

Recent news coverage of the new museum and memorial includes a segment on 60 Minutes reported by Oprah Winfrey, a feature on CNN, and a profile on CBS This Morning.

Click here for EJI’s online interactive report Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.