Museum, memorial dedicated to lynchings planned in Alabama

MONTGOMERY , Ala., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A national memorial to lynching victims was announced Tuesday by the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala.

A statement issued by the organization, dedicated to finding legal representation for prisoners who cannot afford their own defense, said the memorial will include a museum depicting African-Americans during historical eras "from enslavement to mass incarceration."

The museum will be located in Montgomery, yards away from a historically prominent slave auction site and a rail station where slaves were trafficked.

The "Memorial to Peace and Justice" will sit on a six-acre site nearby and will be inscribed with the names of over {link:4,000 lynching victims. : "http://www.eji.org/news/eji-announces-plans-to-build-museum-and-national-lynching-memorial" target="_blank"} In 2015 the organization published a landmark report on the history of lynching in the United States that identified and documented lynchings between 1877 and 1950. It later found several hundred more examples.

The museum and the memorial are expected to open in 2017.