Introduction to the Special Issue on Reframing Confederate Monuments: Memory, Power, and Identity

Abstract

Objective This article highlights the contours of the Confederate monument debate, frames the contributions to the special issue, and underscores important emergent themes from the collection as a whole. Method By way of introduction, we articulate and examine the issue of Confederate monument contestation in terms of three concurrent debates and then provide theoretical synthesis across the various scholarly contributions presented in this special issue. Results Several themes emerge. Memorials are rhetorical and evocative by design, articulating messages of memory, identity, and power. They are part of a broader living narrative giving cultural shape to the city and its inhabitants. Contesting them is part of a transitional justice process required of a society moving from racial oppression and marginalization toward racial equality and social justice. Conclusions The contemporary debate over Confederate monuments holds deep theoretical implications for scholars across the disciplines of the arts, social sciences, and humanities. Consequently, the academy is significantly positioned to speak to this debate through its various avenues of community engagement.

Decolonizing US anthropology

“…Studying these topics might have impacted how we understand the legacies of slavery, mass killings, illegal land seizures, and colonial plunder inflicted on Brown and Black people throughout the globe (R. Allen 1998; Beckles 2013; Clarke, Nmehielle, and Jalloh 2019; Craemer 2020; Deloria 1988b; Evans and Lees 2021; Gray 2018; Hauser et al. 2018; Howard‐Hassmann 2004; Johnston and Slyomovics 2016; LaDuke 1999; Lau‐Ozawa 2018, 2020; J. Lewis 2020; Nash and Colwell 2020; Nesiah 2020; Perry 2020; Ralph 2014; Rechavia‐Taylor 2020; Schirrer 2020; Sheehan and Speights‐Binet 2019; Slyomovics 2012, 2015, 2016; Torpey 2003; Trask 2003; Tuck 2014; Williams and Thomas 2021).…”

“…What would the study of species extinction look like with those ideas as the backbone of ecological knowledge, and what light might it have shone on the limits of the discipline of "human ecology"? Apart from the four fields, such a field of study would require training in biology, mathematics, and environmental science.The Study of Reparations, Landback Initiatives, Truth and Reconciliation, Redistributive and Restitutive Justice, and the Redressal of Historical WrongsStudying these topics might have impacted how we understand the legacies of slavery, mass killings, illegal land seizures, and colonial plunder inflicted on Brown and Black people throughout the globe (R Allen 1998;Beckles 2013;Clarke, Nmehielle, and Jalloh 2019;Craemer 2020;Deloria 1988b;Evans and Lees 2021;Gray 2018;Hauser et al 2018;Howard-Hassmann 2004;Johnston and Slyomovics 2016;. LaDuke 1999;Lau-Ozawa 2018 J. Lewis 2020;Nash and Colwell 2020;Nesiah 2020;Perry 2020;Ralph 2014;Rechavia-Taylor 2020;Schirrer 2020;Sheehan and Speights-Binet 2019;Slyomovics 2012Slyomovics , 2015Slyomovics , 2016Torpey 2003;Trask 2003;Tuck 2014;Williams and Thomas 2021).…”