memorials

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/12/2020
  

  My Local Confederate Monument

  by Casey Cep

  The author examines the history and politics of the last remaining Confederate monument on public lands, other than battlefields and cemeteries, in the state of Maryland. 

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Policy
  8/31/2020
  

  Voltaire Spread Darkness, Not Enlightenment. France Should Stop Worshipping Him.

  by Nabila Ramdani

  Nabila Ramdani argues that the French Enlightenment thinker's abstract defenses of free speech and inquiry should not overshadow the concrete content of what he said and wrote, which included historically influential racist and antisemitic bigotry cloaked in the language of reason and science.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/8/2020
  

  A Guide to Every Person Whose Name Could be Removed from D.C. Buildings or Sites, from the Famous to the Forgotten

  A Washington, D.C. government committee issued recommendations for reassessing many public facilities named for historical figures. In some cases, the case against the figure is might need some explanation. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washingtonian
  9/1/2020
  

  DC Releases Long List of Facilities to Be Renamed, Relocated, or Contextualized

  A commission convened by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser recommends that the District rename many schools and city facilities that honor historical figures associated with slavery and racism, and asks the city government to pressure the federal government to do the same with federal properties in the district. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times
  9/1/2020
  

  Emmett Till’s Home, a Launching Pad for the Civil Rights Movement, Deserves Landmark Status

  Landmark status would further honor Emmett and Mamie Till’s tragic but critical role in American history.

• 
• SOURCE: Esquire
  9/1/2020
  

  The Reckoning With Our History Is Not Just About Smashed Statues

  by Charles P. Pierce

  Political commentator Charles Pierce reflects on efforts to update the visiting experience at James Madison's Montpelier estate to better address the work and lives of enslaved people there. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/1/2020
  

  A Statue of Canada’s First Prime Minister Is Toppled, but Politicians Want It Restored

  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau angered Canadian antiracism activists by condemning vandalism of a statue of the country's first Prime Minister. He angered other Canadians by not offering a stronger condemnation at a time when public acknowledgment of Candian oppression of indigenous people is becoming a hot issue. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/2/2020
  

  Historians: No, to Removing Jefferson, Washington Monuments. Yes, to Contextualizing Them.

  Historians Annette Gordon-Reed, Alexis Coe, and Seth Bruggeman describe a way forward out of the controversy over memorials to slaveholding American leaders.  

• 
• SOURCE: Huffington Post
  9/1/2020
  

  Cop Who Charged Black Senator With ‘Injuring’ Confederate Statues Nurtured A Long Grudge

  The story of the effort by Portsmouth, Virginia police to prosecute a local state legislator for conspiring to "injure" Confederate monuments continues to develop. 

• 
• SOURCE: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
  8/27/2020
  

  Amazing Disgrace: Full Frontal With Samantha Bee on Confederate Monuments (video)

  The humorist examines the controversy over removing Confederate monuments and how we remember and teach history. 

• 
• SOURCE: Montgomery Advertiser
  8/30/2020
  

  While Auburn Hides Behind Law, Troy University Takes Racist Name Off Building

  by Jennifer Brooks

  A history professor urges her university to defy an Alabama law that prohibits renaming a historic public building; the legacy of civil disobedience from the Civil Rights movement demands nothing less. 

• 
• 8/30/2020
  

  Gettysburg’s First Confederate Monument

  by David K. Graham

  The dedication in 1886 of a monument to the Maryland 2nd Confederate Regiment at Gettysburg launched the movement by southern partisans to lay claim to the site of the Union victory as a monument to national reconciliation. The Grand Army of the Republic organization wasn't buying it then, and we shouldn't today.

• 
• SOURCE: Bloomberg
  8/28/2020
  

  Why the Fight Over Statues Will Never End (video)

  Art historian and "art crime" expert Erin Thompson offers insight into the history of iconoclasm and why social change makes arguments about statues and public memorials inevitable.

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  8/23/2020
  

  The Banality of Evocation: How to Remember a Feminist Movement That Hasn’t Ended

  by Erin L. Thompson

  The success of the organization Monumental Women in placing statues of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Central Park in fact illustrates that the struggle for women's power is very much ongoing. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  8/26/2020
  

  House Democrat Introduces Bill To Replace Confederate Monuments Nationwide

  Rep. Bobby Rush's legislation would create a National Park Service program to speed the removal of Confederate monuments across the country.

• 
• SOURCE: The New York Times
  8/24/2020
  

  Rethinking Who and What Get Memorialized

  The notion that history can be rewritten is a powerful one. It starts by taking the pen from the authors we’ve always had — and giving it to someone else.

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  8/25/2020
  

  In N.H. Town, Calls To Put Up Statue Of Black Revolutionary War Hero

  Wentworth Cheswill had an integral role in what may have been the first true battle of the Revolutionary War in Porsmouth, New Hampshire.

• 
• SOURCE: Huffington Post
  8/18/2020
  

  Cops Who Charged Civil Rights Leaders With Felonies Try To Sideline Progressive Prosecutor

  The Portsmouth, VA Police Department has thrown the book at public officials they believe supported protests which led to the destruction of Confederate monuments. They also appear to be working to prevent a progressive Black state prosecutor from handling the case by claiming she is a witness to the events. 

• 
• SOURCE: Greenville (SC) Post and Courier
  8/17/2020
  

  Clemson Discovers Graves of Dozens of People Enslaved by John C. Calhoun

  “My research shows that Black lives hardly mattered at all at Clemson until after desegregation, and the discovery we made in this burial ground tells me that Black deaths mattered even less,” Dr. Rhondda Thomas said Monday. “The thing that I found was that Black labor mattered the most on this land where Clemson was built.”

• 
• SOURCE: Southern Poverty Law Center
  8/11/2020
  

  SPLC WHOSE HERITAGE? DATASET UPDATES AS OF AUGUST 11, 2020

  The SPLC's report on Confederate memorials on public land has been updated to reflect recent removals of statues and other monuments.