Last January, Johnson and his family stood with Stevenson where it happened. Beside them was Oprah Winfrey with a camera crew, filming for a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segment. Stevenson said a few words in Wes\u2019 honor, then handed a small shovel to Johnson to dig the soil that would make its way to the Legacy Museum.<\/p>\n
After all these years, Wes\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just gives you some closure,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n
When his former students got in touch to apologize, Johnson reassured them it wasn\u2019t their fault. Don\u2019t hate your grandparents, he added; they got caught up in the frenzy of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of us is more than the worst thing we have ever done.\u201d It\u2019s something Stevenson often says, and Johnson believes it.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s up to you to pass that on\u2014to your children, and to everyone else you know.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bringing Slavery\u2019s Legacy to Light, One Story at a Time \u00bb https:\/\/t.co\/b1rjsyyoKT<\/a> via @Harvard_Law<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Novella Coleman (@NovellaYColeman) March 13, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n