Community dynamics of public space management and abandonment
Grant
Overview
abstract
-
Public spaces serve as places to gather, remember past events, and collectivize deeds of influential individuals. These spaces can be highly symbolic and representative of community memory, ideals, heritage, and identity. While city parks and statues have dominated recent heritage discussions, often overlooked is that the history of exclusion and racism in the US continues to haunt final resting places. Although this form of segregation is problematic in many respects, the issue specific to heritage and identity is that resources, care, and attention are differentially mobilized by communities across time with respect to cemetery preservation. Ultimately, this project seeks to test assumptions about the past treatment of African American cemeteries, while also addressing their future. Through our work we plan to 1) establish a pattern of continued marginalizing into death among African Americans, 2) examine the process of cemetery 'loss', and 3) identify how best to give 'voice' to the presence and contribution of past peoples who have up to now been silenced. We will document those who contributed to contemporary communities and tie interred individuals to living descendants through the production of genealogies using methods from historical demography. It is our hope that through this process community and family members will be able to visit these sites to honor and remember their ancestors. Moreover, through interview and conversations with community members and leaders, our goal is to contribute to national conversations about both the historical and continued marginalization of African Americans.
date/time interval
awarded by