public history

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• SOURCE: ProPublica
  7/31/2020
  

  4 Perspectives on the Christopher Columbus Statues

  Several stakeholders are interviewed about Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's decision to temporarily remove two statues of Christopher Columbus from public space.

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• SOURCE: MassLive
  7/28/2020
  

  Massachusetts Senators Form Panel To Suggest New State Seal, Which Would Replace Version Native Americans Call Racist

  The current seal depicts a Native man standing beneath a disembodied arm and sword, implying violent subjugation of the Indigenous people. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  7/29/2020
  

  Dropping ‘Pettus’ Is a Bridge Too Far

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  Advocates of renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for John Lewis are disregarding Lewis's published thoughts on the subject. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/26/2020
  

  A Liberal Town Built Around Confederate Generals Rethinks Its Identity

  The town finds itself reassessing its identity, divided between the growing imperative to eradicate symbols of slavery and decades of cultural and economic ties to the Confederates who fought to preserve it.

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• SOURCE: The Sentinel (Carlisle, PA)
  7/26/2020
  

  Monument Movement: Historians Ask Who is Missing from Community Memorials

  Dickinson College's House Divided Project researched the complex role of the school in slavery. The result? A dormitory and a gateway to the campus will be renamed to acknowledge prominent African-Americans in the college's history.

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• SOURCE: Ricochet
  7/24/2020
  

  Sean Wilentz: On the Importance of Studying and Debating American History (Podcast)

  Wilentz argues that understanding America’s past—from the inspiring to the shameful—is vital for what he calls informed citizenship.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/25/2020
  

  As Confederate Monuments Tumble, Die-Hards Are Erecting Replacements

  Groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy are organizing the pushback.

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• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  7/26/2020
  

  Benny White, Who Brought Black History to Life Leading Civil War Reenactors, Dies at 75

  “He dedicated his life to it,” said his brother Marco White of Hyde Park. “Everything in his life was the 54th.”

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• SOURCE: Huffington Post
  

  Sen. Tom Cotton Calls Slavery Nation’s ‘Necessary Evil’ In Shocking Interview

  Slavery “was the necessary evil upon which the union was built,” the Arkansas senator said in an interview.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/25/2020
  

  Across Virginia, Local Officials Weigh Taking Down Reminders Of Confederate Legacy

  Virginia has more Confederate statues than any other state, according to Julie V. Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/27/2020
  

  Colonialism Made the Modern World. Let’s Remake It.

  by Adom Getachew

  What is “decolonization?” What the word means and what it requires have been contested for a century.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/27/2020
  

  Sen. Tom Cotton Wants to Take ‘The 1619 Project’ out of Classrooms. His Efforts Have Kept it in the Spotlight

  Senator Cotton's comments ignited a war of words on social media Sunday; historians including John Kaminski and Joshua D. Rothman weigh in. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Lincoln, Cass, and Daniel Chester French: Homely Politicians Divided by Politics, United through Art

  by Harold Holzer

  In the age before the glare of television and instantaneous photography were relentlessly aimed at our leaders, politicians could succeed even if they looked like Lewis Cass. Or Abraham Lincoln.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/24/2020
  

  Confederate Memorials Quietly Removed from Virginia Capitol Overnight

  “Virginia has a story to tell that extends far beyond glorifying the Confederacy and its participants,” House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn said in an emailed statement, condemning the Confederate ideology as based on maintaining slavery.

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Let Us Now Remove Famous Men

  by Calvin Schermerhorn

  Should the statues remain up, doing the quiet work of reinforcing white supremacy while we get to work dismantling the interlocking components of structural racism? Or are the statues part of a 400-year history of violence against African-descended people that needs urgent attention and rectification?

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• SOURCE: NPR
  7/22/2020
  

  One-Third Of U.S. Museums May Not Survive The Year, Survey Finds

  Most of the museums surveyed made a point of providing educational resources to students during the lockdown. But those are precisely the kind of services that will need to be cut in the budget crunch ahead, according to almost two-thirds of museum directors.

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• SOURCE: The Times (London)
  7/23/2020
  

  Historians blast BBC for ‘unbalanced’ News At Ten report on Churchill

  Historians have criticised a BBC News report on Tuesday about Churchill’s role in the Bengal Famine, which killed three million people in 1943 and 1944. The report arguably blamed Churchill's racism without considering other material factors that lead to 3 million deaths. 

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• SOURCE: Photographic Museum of Humanity
  7/22/2020
  

  When Monuments Become the Narrative (review)

  "Leopold’s Legacy" by Oliver Leu is the most timely of books. It details how Belgian monuments to empire sustain narratives that abdicate responsibility, divert blame, and ultimately deny Belgium’s role in the mutilation and murder of millions of people.

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• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  7/22/2020
  

  A Century Ago, One Lawmaker Went After the Most Powerful Cops in Texas. Then They Went After Him.

  by Tim Murphy

  The Texas Rangers were vicious enforcers of white power. J.T. Canales was the only Mexican American in the legislature. He lost the fight, but the reckoning he sought is finally underway. Historians Monica Muñoz Martinez and Doug Swanson explain.

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• SOURCE: ABC News
  7/18/2020
  

  Historians Debate America's History of Racism and Confederate Monuments

  Experts interviewed by ABC News say erasing the past isn't the answer to calls for justice, police reform and an end to structural racism.