Last January, Johnson and his family stood with Stevenson where it happened. Beside them was Oprah Winfrey with a camera crew, filming for a “60 Minutes” segment. Stevenson said a few words in Wes’ honor, then handed a small shovel to Johnson to dig the soil that would make its way to the Legacy Museum.
After all these years, Wes’ story would finally be heard; Johnson could share it with the world. But it meant just as much to him to share the story with the people of Abbeville. In the days after the segment aired, a county employee, a young white woman, approached Johnson to say she was sorry for what had happened. That she had no idea.
“It just gives you some closure,” Johnson says.
When his former students got in touch to apologize, Johnson reassured them it wasn’t their fault. Don’t hate your grandparents, he added; they got caught up in the frenzy of things.
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we have ever done.” It’s something Stevenson often says, and Johnson believes it.
But for the sake of the future, Johnson had something else to say to his former students. Now you know better, he told them. And it’s up to you to pass that on—to your children, and to everyone else you know.
Bringing Slavery’s Legacy to Light, One Story at a Time » https://t.co/b1rjsyyoKT via @Harvard_Law
— Novella Coleman (@NovellaYColeman) March 13, 2019