memorials

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/9/2021
  

  Charlottesville Removes Robert E. Lee Statue at Center of White Nationalist Rally

  “I’m really happy it’s a boring morning, and boring means that no bad things happened,” says UVA historian John Edwin Mason.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/28/2021
  

  Twenty Years after 9/11, its Memorialization Remains Contested

  by John Bodnar

  "How people respond to traumatic events and the pain of others, of course, is always unpredictable. But such responses have consequences."

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• 5/16/2021
  

  The Rebuilt Berlin Palace Embodies the Tensions of the City's History and Future

  by Barney White-Spunner

  While Berliners have incorporated the city's notorious wall into museums and public art, restoring the site of the Berliner Schloss of the Hohenzollerns and then the Palast der Republic of the East German government has been much more contentious. The Humboldt Forum has been criticized, but its design and reception exemplify the tensions inherent in democracy.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/8/2021
  

  Alamo Renovation Gets Stuck over Arguments about Slavery

  Renovations to the Alamo have hit a predictable political snag, as conservative Texans insist that the site maintain its denial about the slaveholding of many of the Alamo's defenders or the pro-slavery ambitions of the Republic of Texas and threaten to block bills encouraging more historically informed exhibits. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/30/2021
  

  Some Statues Tell Lies. This One Tells the Truth

  Washington State has replaced one of its statues in the US Capitol Statuary hall, that celebrated missionary Marcus Whitman, with one honoring Native American treaty rights advocate Billy Frank, Jr. 

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• SOURCE: UVA Today
  4/7/2021
  

  A Closer Look at the Design and Details of the New Memorial to Enslaved Laborers

  "We know so much about Jefferson – we even know what he ate on July 3, 1803 – but he and all those at UVA were surrounded for over 65 years by a community of more than 4,000 people that we know little about."

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  4/12/2021
  

  Black Protesters Have Been Rallying Against Confederate Statues for Generations

  by Karen L. Cox

  The movement to remove monuments and memorials to the Confederacy and historical figures with ties to racism or slavery is not new; it should be recognized as part of a longstanding effort by African Americans to challenge the public veneration of white supremacy. 

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• SOURCE: WWLTV
  4/9/2021
  

  Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair Stolen from Alabama Cemetery Found in New Orleans, 2 Arrested

  The chair was recovered in New Orleans, and two suspects have been arrested with a third at large. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/8/2021
  

  Who are 'White Lies Matter’? Meet the Group that Says it Turned a Stolen Confederate Memorial into a Toilet

  "We are leaderless in a sense. There is no head honcho, and we keep it that way for a very good reason."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/8/2021
  

  San Francisco Schools Will Keep Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington Names

  "In this case, officials said the reckoning had gone too far, with parents calling the decision to rename 44 schools embarrassing and 'a caricature of what people think liberals in San Francisco do'.”

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/6/2021
  

  Stolen Confederate Monument will Become a 'Toilet' Unless ‘White Lies Matter’ Demands are Met, Group Vows

  The group claiming responsibility has issued a ransom demand: the United Daughters of the Confederacy can secure the return of the chair by flying a banner quoting Black radical Assata Shakur over its Richmond, Virginia headquarters. 

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• SOURCE: NewsChannel 5 (Nashville)
  3/17/2021
  

  Bill Would Remove all Members of Tennessee Historical Commission

  Some conservative legislators are upset with the state Historical Commission's recent decision to remove a memorial to slave trader and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee capitol. 

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• 3/14/2021
  

  The San Francisco School Board vs. Abraham Lincoln (High School)

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  One might, not unreasonably, expect the school board of a major city like San Francisco to be somewhat more historically literate.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/11/2021
  

  The Lynching That Black Chattanooga Never Forgot Takes Center Stage Downtown

  "Even as the bridge became a central gathering place of the city, some Black Chattanoogans who know its history have refused to cross it."

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• SOURCE: WIS-TV
  3/9/2021
  

  SC Lawmakers Announce Legislation to Protect Monuments Statewide

  "Democratic Representative Seth Rose says the controversial monuments like Ben Tillman, who was the former governor and known racist, need to come down."

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• SOURCE: Governing
  3/8/2021
  

  History Matters: Debates About Monuments Reflect Current Divisions

  How should local governments approach the question of memorials? Historians can advise about the significance or meaning of historical figures, but community values and state laws are subject to partisan politics. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  3/5/2021
  

  A Monumental Error in the Making

  by Harold Holzer

  Daniel Chester French's statue "The Republic" is on a list of public monuments to be reviewed by the city of Chicago. Removing it would be destroying an important link to the city's past. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  3/2/2021
  

  Senator Tammy Duckworth Wants FDR Memorial to Be Accessible for People with All Disabilities

  While disability activists won a battle to have FDR portrayed in a wheelchair in his memorial, there have been ongoing problems with the site's design and layout including braille markers that are decorative rather than legible. 

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• SOURCE: Virginian-Pilot
  3/1/2021
  

  How a Wave of Segregationist Tributes, from Streets to Schools, Entrenched the Idea of White Supremacy

  Understanding the stakes of renaming public buildings, streets, or schools requires understanding the purposeful politics that attached the names of Confederates to public spaces a century ago, say Virginia historians Dan Margolies and Calvin Pearson.

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• SOURCE: WABE
  3/1/2021
  

  Ga. Lawmaker Authors Bills To Abolish Confederate Monuments In Peach State

  Georgia state representative Shelly Hutchinson argues that while Confederate monuments stand,"there’s no healing that takes place there, and that means you are OK with where we are at as a country.”