public history

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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: New York Daily News
  5/2/2021
  

  ‘A Tale of the Forgotten Patriots’: New Brooklyn Tour Explores History of British Prison Ships Moored in NYC During the American Revolution

  New York's East River was a mooring site for British prison ships where Colonial revolutionary prisoners were held in dangerous (and disgusting) conditions. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/13/2021
  

  Hank Aaron’s Name Will Replace a Confederate General’s on an Atlanta School

  “Names do matter,” Jason F. Esteves, Atlanta’s school board chairman, said at Monday’s meeting.

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• SOURCE: Insider
  4/11/2021
  

  Challenging the Massive Gender Imbalance on Wikipedia: Volunteers Write Women Back into History

  An ongoing volunteer project seeks to fill in the gaps in the online encyclopedia by researching and writing entries about women and women's history. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  4/12/2021
  

  ‘Darn’ Tootin’ It Is!’: Gov. Tate Reeves Again Declares Confederate Heritage Month, SCV Says

  While official state web pages have not posted such a proclamation, Governor Tate Reeves has apparently signed a proclamation again declaring April Confederate Heritage Month, as posted on the Facebook page of the Sons of Confederate Veterans of Rankin County, MS. Writer Donna Ladd says Reeves' proclamation equates the Union and Confederate causes in the Civil War.

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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: 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: Los Angeles Times
  4/5/2021
  

  What Manhattan Beach’s Racist Land Grab Really Meant

  by Alison Rose Jefferson

  Debates over  the redress of past racial injustice must acknowledge that some past actions have harmed communities in ways that can't be repaired, including the loss of space for communal leisure or equal access to everyday pleasures. 

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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: Montgomery Advertiser
  4/5/2021
  

  'White Lies Matter' Group Claims Responsibility, Demands Ransom For Stolen Confederate Monument

  "We took their toy, and we don't feel guilty about it," the letter from the group says. "They never play with it anyway. They just want it there to remind us what they've done, what they are still willing to do.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/30/2021
  

  Maryland’s State Song, a Nod to the Confederacy, Nears Repeal

  "Maryland, My Maryland" was written by a Confederate sympathizer in 1861 and has come under scrutiny in recent years for its characterization of the Union army as a force of tyranny and call for listerners to fight for the Confederacy. 

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• SOURCE: Publisher's Weekly
  3/26/2021
  

  The Problem with Confederate Monuments

  by Karen L. Cox

  "I also believe it’s important that I, a Southern white woman, write and speak about this topic with blunt honesty. Monument defenders cannot dismiss me as a Northern liberal who has invaded the region to tell them what to do. I’ve grown up here, too."

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• SOURCE: Axios
  3/19/2021
  

  New Commission on Renaming Army Bases Gets Early Makeover

  "A new commission created to relabel U.S. Army bases named for Confederate leaders has quietly undergone a major shakeup as the Biden administration has replaced last-minute Trump appointees with a diverse panel."

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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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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/13/2021
  

  A Push to Save Landmarks of the ‘Great Migration’ — and Better Understand Today’s Racial Inequities

  A south Chicago house once owned by legendary blues singer Muddy Waters is being rehabilitated as a museum of the city's Black music and culture, just one of many battles to preserve the built environment and material history of the African American "Great Migration" to Chicago and other northern cities. 

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• SOURCE: National Geographic
  3/8/2021
  

  Oregon once Legally Banned Black People. Has the State Reconciled its Racist Past?

  Activists in Oregon are working to recover knowledge of the state's forgotten African American history, which is as old as white settlement in the region. 

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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."