NPR ran another interesting story this morning on the wonderful murals for which Philly is becoming well-known. The article, in and of itself, is worth your time, but one of the murals, entitled the 'Lincoln Legacy Project', was especially relevant to the issues of memory, race, and emancipation that have been cropping up here and elsewhere.
The mural features a young woman holding what NPR describes as the flame of liberty. Coiled around her wrist is a banner featuring a quotation of Lincoln from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate at Alton, IL. Hanging from her neck are three medallions, one featuring the face of Lincoln, another featuring an image of Frederick Douglass, and the third featuring a famous quotation from the American abolitionist poet Elizabeth Margaret Chandler: "Am I not a woman and a sister." But since a picture's worth a thousand words, here's the image from NPR:
Given the extent to which promoting and/or debunking the mythology of the Lost Cause preoccupies much of the Civil War community, its nice to see communities and individuals taking charge of Civil War memory and putting it to work in the service of something nobler than the Lost Cause. Kudos to Philly for a great piece of public art with a tremendous message.
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