The Politics of Remembering: Remaking the University Landscape
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Keywords: Black Geographies, Urban Geography, Memory, Spatial Justice
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Rachelle Berry, East Carolina University
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Abstract
College campuses are struggling with remembering, honoring, recognizing, and redressing: the history of slavery, Jim and Jane crow politics, segregation, and their role in continuing systemic racism (Harris et al 2019; The Presidential Committee on the Legacy of Slavery 2022, Green 2020, Haynes 2019). Some universities have taken steps to charge students reparational fees (Jaschik 2019), others have removed confederate plaques (Mcgee 2021), some have changed building names, and most have elected to do nothing or as little as possible to meet this moment of reclamation. In 2019 a group known as The Linnentown Project formed to advocate for the recognition and redress of Linnentown, a Black community destroyed in the 1960s with the help of federal, state, and local urban renewal housing policies. I argue that Linnentown is an example of a Black geography that is stuck in a cycle of destruction, remembering, and rebuilding; and that the Linnentown project engaged in remembering as a political project to recognize and redress Linnentown and to call for new institutions of Black being. After winning a few concessions The Linnentown Project struggles with how to build enough power to move from remembering to rebuilding and working to break the cycle altogether.
The Politics of Remembering: Remaking the University Landscape
Category
Paper Abstract