A MAJOR exhibition exploring the history of slavery and racial injustice is set to make its first appearance outside the United States when it opens in Edinburgh next month.
The Legacy of Slavery, created by the team behind the internationally renowned Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, will run as part of the Edinburgh International Festival from August 8 to 30.
The exhibition will focus largely on the history and legacy of slavery in the US, while also examining Scotland’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade.
Hosted in the Playfair Library Hall, it will take visitors through centuries of history, from the transatlantic slave trade and the economics of enslavement to segregation, racial terror, mass incarceration and inequalities within the modern justice system.
It marks the first time the Legacy Museum has created a major exhibition outside the US.
The museum was founded by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organisation which works to challenge racial and economic injustice and provides legal representation to people who have been wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.
Its founder, Bryan Stevenson, is a lawyer and campaigner who has spent decades challenging wrongful convictions and death sentences in the US.
Stevenson said: “We are thrilled to bring a part of the Legacy Sites to Edinburgh for this exciting festival.
“The relationship between art, music, and justice is deep, profound, and ancient. So much of the world's most extraordinary creative works have been shaped by eras of inequality, bigotry, and injustice.
“The Legacy Museum documents and explores a painful part of America's history, which should deepen visitors' appreciation of the extraordinary music and creative expression this history has inspired.”
The hour-long immersive exhibition will use a range of material to explore the development of slavery and racial injustice in America and how their consequences continue to be felt today.
The exhibition forms part of this year's Edinburgh International Festival programme, which places a particular focus on the US as the country marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Festival director Nicola Benedetti said the exhibition reflected the founding principles of the festival, which was established in 1947 in the aftermath of the Second World War.
She said: “The Edinburgh International Festival was founded in 1947 as an act of reconciliation, built on the belief that art and dialogue together could help humanity reckon with its darkest chapters and find a way forward.
“That is what this work with The Legacy Museum offers: a chance to bring the International Festival's tradition of ideas and conversation into direct contact with one of the most searching acts of historical reckoning being made anywhere today.
“Hosting the first ever international exhibition of The Legacy Museum is a profound expression of our founding purpose.”
The exhibition will sit alongside a number of performances examining similar themes, including theatre productions Angels in America and HANG TIME, as well as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performing Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige.
Benedetti added: “Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative have created something that demands our attention, our honesty and our willingness to sit with discomfort in the service of truth.
“This exhibition is free and open to everyone, and we hope as many people as possible will come and see it.”
The Legacy of Slavery will run at Playfair Library Hall in Edinburgh from August 8 to 30. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance.
