Macon Magazine

42 maconmagazine.com | August/September 2024 THE PLANNING PRO CESS Prior to the bicentennial, Wesleyan College's Lane Center for Social and Racial Equity facilitated community discussions at the Tubman Museum with the help of Tubman curator Jeff Bruce, who also served on the arts committee for Macon200. These community listening sessions were later referenced in the markers' early development. When the meetings ended, several recommendations were made for community healing, including more diversely representative art across Macon, better tactics to address educational discrepancies in the K-12 educational system, and better representation and preservation of Macon's rich African American history, shared Melanie Doherty, Crafting Democratic Futures coordinator and Wesleyan professor. When the Macon200 committee approached the CDF initiative about partnering to develop the markers, it seemed that the recommendations from the listening sessions could finally turn into action. "These markers make visible Macon's often overlooked African American To support future markers, contact Alex Habersham at maconblackpages.com THE MARKERS UNVEILED After months of working with the bronze foundry in Pennsylvania and figuring out the implementation, and with the blessing of Mayor Lester Miller and Macon-Bibb County government, the markers were in the ground. Many echoed Jackson and Doherty's sentiments as audiences and media gathered at the April unveiling event. Mayor Miller, Macon200 co-chair and founder of the Macon-Middle Georgia Black Pages Alex Habersham, and Wesleyan College historian Brandi Simpson Miller were among the crowd as speakers for the occasion. Andrea Cooke of Macon Mental Health Matters led a meditative walk to contemplate the enormity of the history in remembrance. "The markers manifest greatly a bicentennial committee goal of activating and remembering all the city's history," Habersham added. The presence of the markers reaches beyond the physical. Doherty believes they hold healing. In the spirit of creating the Beloved Community espoused by Martin Luther King, the plaques emit inspiration to keep moving Macon forward, and through hometown change, world change. "In order for Macon to continue the process of racial reconciliation, the city must demonstrate an honest and historically accurate recognition of the racial atrocities that happened here. These markers represent important progress for the Macon community." At the unveiling, Habersham remarked that it was important to create space for the stories of the enslaved and their descendants, because they built the city itself. "Their skills and craftsmanship can still be seen today in some of Macon's oldest buildings," he said. Simpson Miller summed it up: "Embrace the lessons the markers impart." history by recognizing these sites as ones of celebration and of mourning," says Doherty. "If we don't recognize and commemorate sites where the enslaved suffered, we do a deep disservice to future generations." Crafting Democratic Futures was also able to support stakeholders from Wesleyan College and members of the Macon200 team who wished to visit the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Founded in connection with leading civil rights advocate Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), the Legacy Museum outlines the history of slavery in the U.S., and the National Memorial commemorates the lives of those killed at lynching sites around the country. EJI has also erected markers recognizing the enslaved who suffered throughout the City of Montgomery. Jackson participated in this trip, as well as Bruce and other Macon200 subcommittee members Tracie Revis, Joshua Murfree, and Julia Morrison. The excursion provided clarity on the best historical sites to highlight for the endeavor. "It's all about doing it the right way," said Sherman Kind, digging into the dirt to level an aluminum pole, which will soon bear the weight of one of Macon's new Black heritage markers. "That's what I thrive on."

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