Reckoning with Racial Violence: Memorials and Public Opinion in the United States

Abstract∞ How do Americans perceive public memorials that address the legacy of racial violence? What role do these commemorative spaces play in shaping collective memory within the built environment? This study presents the first nationally representative analysis of how Americans view the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (NMPJ) in Montgomery, Alabama, the most ambitious racial justice memorial in the United States. We first situate the NMPJ within Montgomery’s broader memorial landscape and examine how its design intervenes in the city’s spatial politics of racial reckoning. Then, drawing on original survey data, we evaluate attitudes toward its aims, alongside preferences concerning Confederate monuments. While overall awareness of the memorial remains limited, we find that greater factual knowledge of the history of racial lynchings significantly correlates with more favorable views of the memorial and support for the removal of Confederate symbols. At the same time, perceptions of racial justice memorials vary sharply by partisanship. These findings suggest that expanding historical knowledge may foster broader public support for reckoning with the United States’ racial past.