The Wall of Tolerance Thousands of people from around the world gathered in Montgomery, Alabama to celebrate the first memorial center in the nation that honors those slain in the Civil Rights Movement. By Carrie Kilman Staff Writer, Tolerance.org Sarah Dodder stood in the darkened room, shoulder to shoulder with strangers, and watched as her name scrolled down a giant, digitized screen. Known as the Wall of Tolerance, the screen displays the names of more than 100,000 people from around the globe who have publicly pledged to fight social injustice. It's the cornerstone of the new Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Ala. — the first memorial center in the nation to honor the people killed during the Civil Rights Movement. Dodder, a payroll associate for a cabling company in Tempe, Ariz., traveled with her niece this weekend to Montgomery, Ala., joining almost 3,000 others to celebrate the Memorial Center's grand opening. _____________________ Known as the Wall of Tolerance, the screen displays the names of more than 100,000 people from around the globe who have publicly pledged to fight social injustice. _____________________ "I live in a very conservative area," she said, a few minutes after viewing the Wall of Tolerance. "To come here and see all these people from all across the country who believe the same things I do, it lets you make a connection with folks. Sometimes you feel so alone, so that connection is extremely powerful." 'Brought to tears' The Memorial Center was built by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is an extension of the SPLC's Civil Rights Memorial, designed by architect Maya Lin in 1989 to recognize 40 martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. The $5.5 million Memorial Center occupies the SPLC's former headquarters in the heart of downtown Montgomery, vacated in 2001 when the SPLC moved into a larger building across the street. Lin's monument stretches along the front of the Memorial Center building, a 40-foot-long black, granite wall, covered in a thin sheet of running water and inscribed with a biblical quote often used by Martin Luther King: "...until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." A nearby dais, also of black granite, is inscribed with the names of 40 people who were murdered during the movement. The monument also records historic events such as the passage of the Voting Rights Acts in 1965. Inside the building, visitors can read the stories of those who were killed, add their names to the Wall of Tolerance, and learn about key places of the Civil Rights Movement, all of which exist within 10 blocks of the Memorial Center's front doors: the church where King preached, the bus stop where Rosa Parks was arrested, the public square once the site of Montgomery's slave market. "So many people are being brought to tears," said Esther Labovitz, an SPLC outreach representative who volunteered at the memorial on Saturday. "First, to see their names on the wall, and second to know they're up there with so many others. We've gone through two boxes of Kleenex." Drawing connections between civil rights and other struggles — those of immigrants, the poor, the LGBTQ community, and victims of foreign genocides — the Memorial Center challenges visitors to recognize that the fight for civil rights is not over. "Change comes when many unite around a common cause," said Jerry Mitchell, a reporter with The(Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, whose investigative journalism has helped re-open several unsolved civil rights-era murders. "May this be a time to stand up against the injustices of the present." 'Enduring power' Throngs of people began arriving Friday — by plane, car and bus, from as close as Birmingham and as far away as western Africa. On Sunday, they sat under a hot, mid-afternoon sun and listened as relatives of the martyrs addressed the crowd during the Memorial Center's dedication ceremony. "I never dreamed this would be here," said Chris McNair, whose daughter Denise was one of four young girls killed when the KKK bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sept. 16, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama. U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (D- Birmingham) addressed the crowd a few minutes later. "I am convinced that the people who killed ... were able to do it because they dehumanized, in their own minds, the people they killed," Davis said. "Let us dedicate ourselves to a world where all people have value and dignity, regardless of who and what they are." _____________________ "Let us dedicate ourselves to a world where all people have value and dignity, regardless of who and what they are." _____________________ The Memorial Center, he said, represents "the enduring power of people willing to take a stand." After the ceremony, hundreds of visitors lined up to walk through the Memorial Center. Hundreds more milled around outside, talking with new acquaintances, sharing stories and pausing under the shelter of the food tent to read Dr. King's words before boarding the buses back to the hotels. SPLC co-founder Morris Dees watched the scene from the memorial wall. "I'm so thrilled," Dees said, in a quiet moment between greeting people as they stopped to run their fingers through the water running down the granite wall. "To see that people came from all over the United States. Every state in the nation. People who were carpenters and lawyers and bankers and teachers and ministers, every profession, people who came to join in the march for freedom and justice. It was begun by Rosa Parks, but it will continue long past today." This article was originally published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This website: Copyright © 2005 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in Urban Mozaik Magazine are not necessarily those of Urban Mozaik Magazine and the publisher cannot be held responsible for them. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.