Those citizens who have made the ultimate sacrifice to end genocide, lynching and other expressions of hate and mob violence are every bit as heroic in the war for the American conscience as are any of our soldiers who are routinely celebrated and honored with memorials and praise. Yet we still have no national monument which acknowledges and honors these fallen heroes. It is time we did. - rs



To the President of the United States,
The White House, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. President,

I propose the creation of a national monument to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of American men, women and children who have fallen victim to the passion of the mob and the absence of the rule of law-by genocide, lynching, internment and so many other tragic moments of our national history . I propose a monument that will include and honor all, those who suffered the long dark days of the routine episodes of exclusion and intolerance that has stained our great history and was motivated by the basest expressions of racial hatred, intolerance, greed and social control. The refugee who is refused the safe haven of our shores no less than the soldier who rests in the soils of Arlington. They, too, have also given their lives in the service of our national ideals of justice and humanity. I suggest this monument begin with the recognition and honoring of those that fell victim to the practice of lynching and be expanded over time to include all those succumbed to the worst passions of mob rule and official injustice.

I was inspired to suggest this undertaking after viewing a work by the great American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. In his 1934 statue of a lynched man, titled "Death", a work that enobled its subject victim at the same time it exposed the tragedy of its theme that I could not help but realize this is a wound that still lies deep in the American psyche and calls for repair. As a Japanese-American, Mr. Noguchi himself suffered numerous forms of intolerance, not least the racial slurs and slander which his first exhibition of the work at the Rose Marie Harriman Galleries in 1935 called forth from a critic with devastating impact.

I believe, Mr. President, it would be fitting in these early years of the new millennium, that we begin by putting behind us this grim reminder of an age when people succumbed to such expressions of intolerance and violent policy. However, we can only do so if we forthrightly acknowledge the multitude of victims and their families, many of whom will forever remain nameless, who suffered these cruel moments of shame on our behalf. Be it by lynching or genocidal policy, by racism or disenfranchisement, fear-bred internment or exclusion and deportation, it is a wound which still cries to be healed. I propose our government help us to do so by soliciting a fitting national monument and grounds that will at last give this invisible group of America's 'disappeared' a visible sign of acknowledgement and our dedication to the cause of 'never again'-a place where their memory may finally come home to rest.

To this I would only add, in this time we are about setting national standards of excellence for our students, visiting such a monument should be required of any student before graduating high school so that they may contemplate, first-hand, the most important 'R' of all, 'Respect for others'. Most Sincerely,

Red Slider, poet.



[note: There have been some other attempts to create monuments to black history and the history of slavery. However, a true national monument with the stature of say, Arlington or the Lincoln Memorial has not been publicly considered. With the succeeding Administration the idea of such a monument, of course, must be abandoned until a less racist and miscreant political climate prevails. Given the behavior of the current President, that may not happen for some generations. -rs.]

[Update: Since this proposal was first made here, a monument to slavery and the victims of lynching has been established in Montgomery. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice I don't know if it can eventually expand to include the other forms of extreme injustice-native American genocide, Japanese internment, detention and deportation of the undocumented, etc.- that are mentioned in the proposal. It would be good if it could. If not, separate memorials for other groups might be required - rs, 2018]