Williams College to Host Curator Deborah Rothschild for Discussion of Memorial to Victims of Lynching

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., November 17, 2017—Deborah Rothschild, consulting curator to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and former senior curator at the Williams College Museum of Art, will visit Williams College on Tuesday, Nov. 28, to discuss the EJI’s memorial to the victims of lynching. The event will take place at 7 p.m. in Paresky Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

Rothschild will discuss the origin and evolution of Bryan Stevenson’s multi-layered National Memorial for Peace and Justice that will open this coming spring on six acres of land in Montgomery, Ala. The monument is designed to bring attention to a neglected part of American history: the era of racial terror during which close to 4,000 African-Americans in the South were lynched in brutal acts of violence. Rothschild will describe the memorial’s various components including a Legacy Museum, where visitors will experience the evolution of slavery from its beginnings, through the era of racial terror, to the condition of mass incarceration we live with today.

Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. It is a private nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. It is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

This event is part of the college’s Williams Reads programming for 2017-2018. Williams Reads aims to foster new connections among students, staff, faculty, and community members by exploring diversity through a common reading experience. This year’s common read is Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.

END

For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

Online:
williams.edu
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Published November 17, 2017