memorials

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  10/12/2020
  

  Portland Protesters Topple Statues of Lincoln, Roosevelt in 'Day of Rage'

  Droves of protesters in Portland, Ore., took down the statues of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on Sunday in demonstrations that had reportedly been billed online as “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage” by organizers.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/8/2020
  

  Is There a Place for the President of the Confederacy?

  Removing Confederate monuments from public grounds to museums is easier said than done, drawing on scarce resources and pleasing few parties in the conflict over memorializing the CSA. 

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  10/9/2020
  

  #WEWANTMOREHISTORY

  by Greg Downs, Hilary N. Green, Scott Hancock, and Kate Masur

  At historic sites across the United States on September 26, dozens of participating historians presented evidence to disrupt, correct, or fill out the oversimplified and problematic messages too often communicated by the nation’s memorial landscape.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/5/2020
  

  Mellon Foundation to Spend $250 Million to Reimagine Monuments

  “The beauty of monuments as a rubric is, it’s really a way of asking, ‘How do we say who we are? How do we teach our history in public places?’” Elizabeth Alexander, the foundation’s president, said.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/30/2020
  

  A Counter to Confederate Monuments, Black Cemeteries Tell a Fuller Story of the South

  “We put up these Confederate monuments in public squares as a homage to a lost cause that was really a lie. But the real builders of the cities and the states and the nation, their narrative is still not told.”

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/28/2020
  

  Amid the Monument Wars, a Rally for ‘More History’

  “Historians have different views on taking down statues,” said Gregory Downs, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and one of the organizers. “But that debate doesn’t really capture what historians do, which is to bring more history.”

• 
• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  9/20/2020
  

  California finally sweeps away most of its tributes to the Confederacy. What took so long?

  by Kevin Waite

  California was home to a substantial secessionist community in the 1850s, and white migrants to the region in the early 20th century brought the Lost Cause mythology with them. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  

  Four Principles to Guide Us on Whose Statues Should Topple and Whose Should Remain

  Kevin M. Levin, Lalane Schmidt, Kevin Gover and George Derek Musgrove are among the scholars offering perspective on how local community deliberations about problematic memorials should proceed. 

• 
• 9/20/2020
  

  Breaking Lincoln's Promise

  by Shannon Bontrager

  Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address demanded that Americans keep the memory of both the Union dead and their cause alive and "hot." The cooling of that memory has enabled backlashes against justice through history, and today. 

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• 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. 

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• 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. 

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• 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.