The Triangles

Richmond – Liverpool – Benin

• Richmond sent tobacco and other goods to Liverpool which sent trading goods to Benin and West Africa which sent enslaved people to Richmond.
• An awful triangle which led to some 12 million humans being removed from their homes and forced in permanent unpaid labor.
• The Reconciliation Statue is in each of these three places.

Birmingham – Selma – Montgomery

• Letter from a Birmingham Jail by MLK, Jr asks white ministers why they aren’t outraged at what caused demonstrations. Just five months later, four girls were killed while attending church.
• Selma’s famed bridge is named for a CSA soldier. Why does it still have that name? Why doesn’t the bridge honor Congressman John Lewis who was beaten on that bridge on Bloody Sunday?
• Montgomery has Dexter Ave Baptist Church where MLK, Jr was pastor. As of April 2018, it also has the Memorial for Peace and Justice. It honors over 4,000 people who were lynched. 800 steel monuments are permanent placed in the memorial. There are counterparts waiting for 800 counties to claim and display their monument and tell the stories of the lynchings in their boundaries.

If you can’t visit those triangles, then make one visit – to the African-American Museum in Washington, DC. Spend a full day there. Absorb the full story. And, when you’re done – ask someone, anyone of a skin color different from yours, to tell you their story. Listen deeply.

Lead On!

Steve