memorials

Juneteenth has Gone National—We Must Preserve its Local Meanings

by Tiya Miles

Juneteenth celebrations have long been couched in local Black communities' preserved rituals that express particular ideas about heritage and the meaning of freedom. While a national commemoration of emancipation is welcome, history will be lost if local observances are swamped by a national holiday.

Arlington Cemetery Will Remove its Racist Confederate Monument, but Some Won't Let it Go

by Erin L. Thompson

The Arlington Confederate Memorial, according to a Defense Department review, mythologizes history so severely that no contextualizing signage could overcome its embodiment of the Lost Cause myths that justified Jim Crow. Some adherents of that myth are mad. 

Trinity College Dublin will Rename Berkeley Library to Stop Honoring Slaver

Trinity College Provost Linda Doyle said that the college was not erasing the contributions of George Berkeley to philosophy and Irish intellectual life, but would no longer honor him with a building. 

Should Jimmy Carter's Coming Departure Change How We Memorialize Presidents?

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

"When does respect and gratitude transfer from the office to the person—and when does that become inappropriate in a republic?" A presidential historian argues for emphasizing Carter's service while a private citizen as a way of emphasizing that the president is a first-among-equals citizen. 

In Germany, Soviet Memorials Raise Painful Memories, But are Protected

Germany stands alone among European nations in protecting many Soviet-era monuments in the former East Germany. Honoring victims of Nazis has long been a reason, but this has been complicated by German support for Ukraine after its invasion by Russia. 

The United States Colored Troops Killed at Olustee, Florida are Still Owed a Proper Burial

by Barbara A. Gannon

Why are the remains of members of the United States Colored Troop still interred in unmarked graves at the Civil War battlefield of Olustee, Florida, when the defenders of a treasonous rebellion on behalf of slavery are buried with honors? 

Descendants of Slaveholder Donor Denounce Law School Name Change

T.C. Williams donated a considerable sum to the University of Richmond's law school. He also relied on slave labor in his tobacco and manufacturing businesses. The university's new policy requires them to remove his name from a building. Descendants call this hypocritical and ungrateful and demanded an inflation-adjusted refund with interest of $3.4 billion.

It's Up to McCarthy to Remove Statues of Slavers from the Capitol

A third of the artworks in the Capitol depict slaveholders. Whether they're replaced with other works, possibly those celebrating liberators, is largely up to the new House Speaker. 

Why I Vandalized Ole Miss's Confederate Statue

Zach Borenstein explains why he painted "Spiritual Genocide" on the base of a campus Confederate memorial, and why he wishes he had talked with local activists first. 

Hundreds of Errors in Korean War Memorial Wall

If the Korean conflict is often called a "forgotten war," the wall of remembrance added to the Korean War Veterans' Memorial doesn't meet the challenge of remembering the fallen. 

When White Contractors Wouldn't Remove Confederate Statues, a Black One Did

Devon Henry didn't seek the job of removing a dozen Confederate memorials in Richmond, but local white-owned vendors refused the contracts. He has received death threats and wears a bulletproof vest at job sites. 

Restored Victor Hugo Statue Vandalized by French Rightists Claiming "Wokeism" Run Amok

The statue in the author's birth city of Besançon has become a lightning rod for controversy after a restoration aimed at returning to the vision of Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow was seen as presenting the author as Black.  

Philly's Columbus Statue is Out of the Box—So is the Discussion About His Legacy

Historian Hasan Kwame Jeffries talks about controversial statues: one removed in Richmond, and one uncovered in Philadelphia.

Philly Plan for Tubman Memorial Draws Fire: Were Black Artists Excluded?

The city awarded a commission for a permanent statue to Wesley Wofford, who designed a traveling memorial that had graced City Hall. Local artists, many Black, argued that the call wasn't fair and open. 

"Our Best Memorial to the Dead Would be Our Service to the Living"

by Allison S. Finkelstein

An overlooked cohort of American women who served in the first world war worked to establish service, instead of statuary, as a mode of memorialization. Their example offers a path out of the heated politics of commemoration. 

The Monument Controversy We Aren't Discussing

by Cynthia C. Prescott

Outside of the former Confederacy, efforts to replace "Pioneer Mother" statues with depictions of Native American women have sparked a backlash including outright theft.

We Need a National Emancipation Monument at Point Comfort – Where American Slavery Began, and Began to End

by Steven T. Corneliussen

While parts of the site are honored as the Fort Monroe National Monument, Point Comfort should be made a national monument to emancipation. 

An Exclusive Look at the New WWI Memorial

Sculptor Sabin Howard's ambitious design for the memorial relied on the modern power of digital photography to capture motion and the old-school forming of clay to freeze it in time. 

Erin Thompson's "Smashing Statues": Tear 'Em All Down

How does taking down a statue relate to the more complicated work of eliminating the racist ideas and structures that put it up? 

Confronting Confederate Heritage is Necessary to Understand White Supremacy

by David Barber

Everyday social life in the Confederacy required white Southerners to close their eyes and hearts to terrible cruelty. No reconciliation today is possible without acknowledging it.