Inside the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where in 1955 an all-white jury acquitted J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, both white men, who later confessed to murdering Emmett Till.

A view inside a courthouse room set with rows of wooden chairs and sunlight coming in from the tall windows on the right side of the room

A painted mural on a concrete wall depicting indigenous people alongside a riverbank

Photo: Carlos Jaramillo for Mellon Foundation

A hand with several rubber bracelets on the wrist makes notations on a page in a book.

A man wearing glasses with a beard holds up an iPad to with an image of a colonial dressed figure standing in front of a concrete monument

Ruben Ochoa, “¡Vendedores Presente!,” 2021, in collaboration with LACMA × Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives, © Ruben Ochoa. Image courtesy of Snap Inc.

An augmented reality landscape depicts a Los Angeles cityscape and a body of water with flying vendor carts dotting the sky

Photo: Joshua Asante for Mellon Foundation

A diverse group of individuals gathered at the Monument to Listening

The Main Street train shed in Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Virginia. Photo: Mellon Foundation

The Main Street train shed in Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Virginia

Photo: Mike Gunnoe for University of Kansas Endowment Association

Two men work to remove a plaque from a large rock 

Photo: Acacia Johnson for Mellon Foundation

A group of tourists stands on a dock looking at a large totem pole

“America’s Playground: DC” (2023) by Derrick Adams, a temporary art installation on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Credit: Ike Edeani for Mellon Foundation

A colorful playground with many children playing on it in front of a colorful mural with a rainbow painted on it inside of a park lined with trees.

Photo: Steven Phillips for The Washington National Cathedral

A group of people look at a pair of colorful stained glass windows inside of a church

“Of Thee We Sing” (2023) by vanessa german, a temporary art installation on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Photo: Ike Edeani for Mellon Foundation

A temporary art installation depicts a historical figure, Marian Anderson, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. 

Funding expansion provides unprecedented investment for memorializing a more accurate American story in our public spaces

Presidential Initiatives

Mellon Commits a Half Billion Dollars to Monuments Project

Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Civic Engagement

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Evolving Higher Education

A vertical image of an Indigenous person who is sitting on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Expanding Public Knowledge

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Monuments and Memory

A large statue of a confederate general is covered in markings and graffiti. 

Multivocality

Five people stand together in a group photo. They are laughing and smiling.

Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 

University Everywhere

Two scholars dressed in all black face the camera.

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Mission

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History

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People

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