Dallas Morning News: Ragland: We need this ‘dark memorial to a brighter future’

On February 10, 2015 AfriClassical posted:

New York Times: History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names

Race and Culture Columnist James Ragland wrote a column in The Dallas Morning News about the Equal Justice Inititative report  Lynching in America.  It was entitled "A painful chapter we dare not forget" and was published February 25, 2015.  It has been archived under a title quoted from the piece:

"Ragland: We need this ‘dark memorial to a brighter future’"

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/james-ragland/20150224-ragland-we-need-this-dark-memorial-to-a-brighter-future.ece 

James Ragland writes of the quote, from an historian:

I really like the sound of that.  It's an apt description for a monument which, if erected, would shine a light on one of the bleakest periods in this nation's history - a time when nearly 4,000 African-Americans were lynched in a dozen Southern states, including Texas.

***

The fact that Dallas, once a venomous pit of racial hostility, is on this gruesome list came as no surprise.

But it's revolting, nonetheless.

What Dallas shouldn't do now is ge into a political brawl over a plan to memorialize the brutal lynchings that happened here and elsewhere.  It should rally behind the cause and look for creative solutions.