public history

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/28/2020
  

  The Complicated Racial History of the High School D.C. is Renaming

  Renaming Woodrow Wilson High after Edna Burke Jackson, who taught history as one of two Black faculty members in the years after desegregation, is an obvious choice. 

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• SOURCE: Lowell Sun
  12/31/2020
  

  Partnership Led By UMass Lowell Preserves “Little Canada”

  An undergraduate honors course in history led by Robert Forrant is developing public history markers to commemorate the Le Petit Canada neighborhood of Lowell, Massachusetts. 

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• SOURCE: Charleston Post and Courier
  12/20/2020
  

  Review: New Book Seeks To Differentiate Between Confederate History And Historical Memory

  "Adam Domby’s book provides a helpful guide through White Southern memory, a place where the Civil War never really ended."

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/20/2020
  

  A Statue of Barbara Johns Should Replace Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol

  The Washington Post's editorial board recommends the young educational justice activist to replace Robert E. Lee's statue in the US Capitol. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  12/18/2020
  

  Why Just ‘Adding Context’ to Controversial Monuments May Not Change Minds

  by Erin Thompson

  Research shows that "adding context" to monuments with problematic subject matter does little to expand the understanding of history visitors take away from the scene.

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• SOURCE: National Council on Public History
  12/15/2020
  

  Making Public History More Accessible During Times of Uncertainty

  by Nick Sacco

  The curtailment of in-person programming at national parks due to COVID is a great occasion for the parks system to undertake deep consideration of the issue of accessibility in its programs and facilities. 

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• SOURCE: Asheville Citizen-Times
  12/11/2020
  

  What Was the Dixie Highway, Anyway?

  Historian Tammy Ingram discusses the Dixie Highway, about which she wrote the book, as a rare project of early 20th-century highway building and tourism development that was completed. 

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• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  12/9/2020
  

  Illuminating the Legacy of Slavery at a New York Museum

  Artist Reggie Black is projecting a message about the history of slavery in New York City on the façade of the ​Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Manhattan, where six people were enslaved.

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• SOURCE: US News and World Report
  12/12/2020
  

  Mississippi Home of Medgar Evers Declared National Monument

  The Mississippi home where civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963 has been declared a national monument.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/29/2020
  

  Let Trump Try To Defend Racist, Traitorous Confederates. Congress Can Still Prevail

  by Ty Seidule

  "This nation should honor those who fought bravely to defend it, not its enemies."

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• 11/22/2020
  

  The Devil and Mary Lease

  by Alan J. Singer

  Populist and feminist agitator Mary Lease advised farmers to "raise less corn and more hell." Her brand of hell-raising, however, included a strong current of antisemitism that needs to be widely known.

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• SOURCE: Independent
  11/19/2020
  

  Female Pirate Lovers Whose Story was Ignored by Male Historians Immortalized with Statue

  A new memorial recognizes the relationship of pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read and secures their place in the history of piracy.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/18/2020
  

  The Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year

  “There was an event that happened in 1621,” Wampanoag historian Linda Coombs said. “But the whole story about what occurred on that first Thanksgiving was a myth created to make white people feel comfortable.” Native activists hope to disrupt the stories of Thanksgiving by questioning public history and by recovering indigenous food practices.

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• SOURCE: Jerusalem Post
  11/15/2020
  

  Dozens Of Academics Oppose New Controversial Yad Vashem Chair

  Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt is among the academics criticizing the appointment of a right-wing politician to head the Israeli Holocaust memorial and educational center, arguing that his remarks toward Palestinians and Arab Israelis are disqualifying. 

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• 11/15/2020
  

  Reckoning with Marcus Whitman and the Memorialization of Conquest

  by Cassandra Tate

  The same period that saw the public affirmation of the Confederate Lost Cause myth saw a proliferation of monuments that portrayed the conquest of the indigenous people of the west as virtuous pioneering. The case of Marcus Whitman shows a national reckoning is in order.

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• SOURCE: Haaretz
  11/8/2020
  

  Revered Polish Jew, Holocaust Survivor Joins Protests Over Top Appointment at Yad Vashem

  A prominent Polish Holocaust survivor has objected to the appointment of Effi Eitam, an Israeli politician and former military commander, to chair the directorate of the Holocaust memorial because of inflammatory statements calling for the deportation of Palestinans from the West Bank and calling Arab Israelis a "fifth column." 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/9/2020
  

  Alexander Hamilton, Enslaver? New Research Says Yes

  A paper by a researcher at the Schuyler Mansion finds overlooked evidence in letters and Hamilton’s own account books indicating that he bought, sold and personally owned slaves.  

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• SOURCE: WAMU
  11/9/2020
  

  The Smithsonian Will Open A National Native American Veterans Memorial In D.C. Wednesday

  The National Native American Veterans Memorial will open with virtual programming, including a tour and video tribute, on Wednesday, November 11.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/3/2020
  

  We Must Do More to Honor the People and Places Lost to Violent Racism

  by Walter Greason

  Teaching a course about collective racial violence in the United States showed a professor the extent to which this history is both integral to the nation and completely hidden from the majority of Americans. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/2/2020
  

  D.C. Man Fights to Educate Americans on the Importance of Voting

  “No matter what position you have, in a democracy if you don’t have the right to have your voice heard, you cannot really be considered a full citizen,” Phil Portlock said.