“…A contribution to truth, an array of facts, the perusal of which it is hoped will stimulate this great American Republic to demand that justice be done…though the heavens fall.” —Ida B. Wells (1862–1931)
What if each person in A Memorial Field had lived a full life?
Every incident of racial violence in the uncivil war against unarmed Black Americans is another lament. The elegies here speak to the depravity of police murders. Short narratives of each death expose the racism at the root of our criminal justice system, and the deep fissures in the foundation of America. A Living Memorial calls us to hold our grief close as appeals for police reform go unheeded. In the path of suffering, we must have the strength to bear witness to the truth, if we are to find a better way forward.
