Reflection on Montgomery – Andy Bachmann

Stepping into the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama is an immediate, visceral experience. On the giant wall before you run the visually jarring imagery of waves, cresting and crashing first at your feet, then gradually, overwhelming your whole body. The few words that flash across the screen prepare your heart and mind for what you are about to experience. Witnessing the story of black Americans, beginning with the transcontinental slave trade to the post-Civil War reconstruction era, to Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement, to our modern tactics of oppression through mass incarceration. It is, at times, overwhelming. Yet it is an essential voice telling the honest story of how the United States became one of the dominant governments in the world by building its vast wealth on the oppression and subjugation of enslaved people. And the remnants of that enslavement are still prevalent in today’s world.

Four years ago, our Racial Justice Committee knew that it was important to make a pilgrimage to Montgomery, to witness and be informed firsthand on the realities of black history in America. And we also knew that we wanted to do this trip as a step in our own process of reconciliation. We want to build a better world by understanding our shared histories and learning from past evils so that those evils can be combatted and never enacted again. We partnered with the N.A.A.C.P. for that trip, and upon our return, witnessed the intentional process of Alachua County entering its own process of reconciliation, with many of our members directly involved.

Two weeks ago, one of the most profound moments for me came when I found the jars of soil collected from various sites of known racial terror and lynching in Alachua County. And I remembered how many of us performed our own acts of penitence and remembrance by adding our own handful of dirt to those very jars. There they sat, on full display; names to be recited, remembered, and mourned, collected by hands that hope to be part of a more beautiful community, where all of us are committed to working for the common good for all.

On December 1st, we will conclude our most recent pilgrimage experience by saying the names and recalling the experiences of our trip to Montgomery, this time with members of the Alachua County Community Remembrance Project, local leaders from Hawthorne, Micanopy, Alachua, and beyond, and with members of our local branch of the N.A.A.C.P. Hopefully, the connections we felt through our shared experience will foster new friendships. I know the blessing of being in a sacred community to support one another and hold one another accountable to further works of justice and care will always be with us. And I pray that as we say their names and light a candle in remembrance once again, our work will continue to glow and grow as a beacon of hope and hard work in a world desperately in need.