Course Description

Instructor: Marilynne McKay

Who deserves a monument in an America torn by issues of racial inequity and social injustice? Since the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, many Confederate monuments have been removed as symbols of White supremacy. We’ll compare the histories of Southern and Northern memorials and hear how present-day communities are reacting to demands for change. We’ll see new honorees and hear what historians have to say about “erasing history.” We’ll learn some strategies used to sidestep legal issues and tally some big expenses involved in maintaining statuary and finding new homes for displaced monuments. We’ll discuss the new Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s $250 million investment designed to “transform the way our country’s histories are told in public spaces.” Using data from the National Monument Audit, we’ll review today’s national statuary—it’s no surprise that memorialized individuals are overwhelmingly white and male. We’ll learn that violence is the most dominant subject of commemoration across our nation (33% of conventional monuments mention war). What are the values we really want to honor? We’ll explore how communities are imagining proposals that might “ensure that future generations inherit a commemorative landscape that venerates and reflects the vast, rich complexity of the American story.”