Dallas is erecting a sculpture to honor men and at least one woman lynched in the city between 1853 and 1920.
A poem by Tim Seibles is punched into the sculpture’s steel wall. It begins:
“These are the things nightmares are made of—ropes, knivers, a torn black face, burning flesh, white mobs, their picnics and blood-spattered hands.
“We want to forget what happened here, but it is impossible not to wonder what broken song in the human heart led to this.”