BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - An organization is trying to establish a memorial to lynching victims in Birmingham to commemorate 30 people who were slain in Alabama’s most populous county.
The Jefferson County Memorial Project has researched 30 documented cases of racial lynchings in the county dating back to the 1880s.
Members are proposing placing a monument in downtown Linn Park, which is surrounded by government buildings. It also is home to a Confederate memorial that city leaders want removed.
The monument would be a local version of the national lynching memorial in Montgomery. That memorial honors about 4,000 people who were lynched nationwide. The national memorial includes steel slabs that can be obtained by groups or governments for local monuments.
A news release says descendants of lynching victims are involved in the Birmingham project.
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