ABSTRACT
This essay describes observations arising from a phenomenological, autoethnographic study of the peacebuilding work at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the companion Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama (USA). The two sites identify themselves in the genre of museums for peace for their aims to acknowledge, address, and heal the violent legacy of racial terror in the United States. Three focused ways of describing the museums’ peacebuilding goals emerged as their pedagogy of design and curatorial practice. Goal 1: To enable audiences to witness and acknowledge the “historical truths” of unspeakable violence, terror, and dehumanization. Goal 2: To emphasize remembrance as requiem, funerary honor, and repose. Goal 3: To promote reconciliation as a cooperative, communal effort to disentangle and heal the societal dysfunction of racial privilege and domination. These focused peacebuilding goals offer a valuable lens for guiding the design of museums for peace which depict historical legacies and events of extreme violence.
