‘The Legacy of Lynching,’ at the Brooklyn Museum, Documents Violent Racism

Some exhibitions are as much about life as about art. “The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America,” at the Brooklyn Museum, is a collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative, founded by the lawyer and MacArthur fellow Bryan Stevenson to target racism in the criminal justice system.

The initiative’s contribution to the show includes an interactive video display documenting (without the use of explicit photographs) thousands of lynchings of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The museum has surrounded the display with related work by artists in its collection, an exceptionally forceful lineup featuring Mark Bradford, Elizabeth Catlett, Melvin Edwards and Kara Walker. (Through Sept. 3; brooklynmuseum.org.)