The Alliance of Baptists (the Alliance) is preparing for its second pilgrimage to the three sites of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. The trip will take place from September 19 to 24 and will include visits to EJI’s Legacy Museum, the National Museum for Peace and Justice, and the new Freedom Garden Sculpture Park.
The Alliance first visited the EJI sites in 2022. As a historically and predominantly white organization, it believes it is essential to make the pilgrimage to Montgomery a regular occurrence.
The EJI was founded by Bryan Stevenson in 1989 as a law firm to represent incarcerated clients who were denied a fair trial. Stevenson told the story of his work in his memoir, “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” which was later made into a film.
In 2018, the EJI opened the National Museum for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum to memorialize victims of lynching in the South. The Freedom Garden Sculpture Park was added in 2021.
On the 2022 pilgrimage, retired pastor Nancy Hastings Sehested said: “It was an extraordinary time…Together, we saw the deep roots of white privilege and power that continue to perpetuate racial injustice. Together, we said a strong yes again to God’s birthing of new life through us as an antiracist organization.”
Leah Grundset Davis, pastor of Ravensworth Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, brought a group of 12 from her congregation to the 2022 trip. She noted that “the gathering in Montgomery was critical to our collective understanding of whiteness in the United States, especially through history.”
The Alliance of Baptists was founded in 1987 as a progressive alternative to the Southern Baptist Convention. Since its inception, it has sought to highlight historic Baptist principles and has focused on justice-oriented issues.
According to Stephanie True Cooper, a spokesperson for the organization, the work of the EJI “is at the crux of what the Alliance is about right now.” She added, “Our antiracism work invites us to dig deep into the roots of systemic racism in this country and the white supremacy that still upholds those systems.”
More information on the pilgrimage, titled “Excavating Our Roots,” can be found here.
Senior Editor at Good Faith Media.
