The Battle Over the Public Memory of Slavery
“We have to deal with the original sin. We have to deal with slavery. ” - Rep. Al Green, D-TX

Brittany “Bree” Newsome scaled a 30-foot flagpole at the South Carolina statehouse to take down the Confederate flag. Photo by Reuters/Adam Anderson Photos.
For Black History Month, we’re spotlighting the Black activists trying to right the historical record. This issue was written by our friend Alix Rivière, a PhD in history focusing on the experiences of young enslaved people in America. You may remember Alix from our November issue on The Cradle to Prison Pipeline. - Amber & Katie

Over 40% of White people and a third of Hispanic and Asian-American people in the United States do not believe slavery shaped our nation’s current racial and economic inequalities. On the other hand, 84% of Black people believe slavery continues to have an impact on their position in society.
How can we begin to reconcile with our past when our schools struggle to teach the most basic aspects of this shameful chapter of our history? According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, only 8% of high school seniors can identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War. That’s because too many state Boards of Education refuse to include this fundamental historical fact in school curricula. Partisan politics define what history our children are learning; comparing Texas and California textbooks reveals how conservative officials have successfully whitewashed the history of people of color and their contributions to American society.
Outside classrooms, memorials to the Confederacy highlight the routine acceptance of white supremacy and its symbols in public spaces. In 2015, the massacre of nine Black Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina sparked a heated debate about Confederate symbols throughout the country. Since 2015, only 114 of the 1,861 “publicly sponsored symbols” of the Confederacy (statues, flags, street names, etc.) have been taken down. Seven Southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) have recently enacted laws to prevent the removal of war monuments without legislative approval.
But there is hope: in four Southern states (Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas), similar laws were proposed but did not pass. And in recent years, over a hundred cities, towns and school districts from Alaska to Alabama have dismantled Confederate memorials and monuments.
We have a lot to account for and teach when it comes to the legacy of slavery in America, but one way to start is to discard pro-slavery symbols in the public square to make space for true history and true heroes.

Though given little recognition, grassroots organizations are leading the fight to remove memorials that celebrate pro-slavery public figures. After the Charleston massacre, Malcolm Suber, Angela Kinlaw and Michael “Quess?” Moore founded Take ‘Em Down NOLA, a group aimed at removing public symbols of white supremacy in New Orleans. Described by Moore as a “black-led, multiracial, intergenerational coalition,” Take ‘Em Down NOLA has already succeeded in removing three Confederate monuments.
Despite Mayor Mitch Landrieu completely co-opting their work, Take ‘Em Down NOLA hopes to remove or change the names of over 100 statues, 24 streets, seven schools, and two hospitals that they see as paying tribute to slavery. Recently, the group has petitioned the popular black-led Mardi Gras krewe Zulu to “end its 110 year-old tradition of donning blackface,” a move in line with the group’s mission to rid the city of all symbols of white supremacy.

Learn more:
How much do you know about slavery? Take the quiz!
Here’s a quick read on slavery by the numbers.
Read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness by Michelle Alexander, a fascinating analysis of how racism was institutionalized first in slavery, then segregation and today in our criminal justice system.
Check out the 1619 Project, an effort by the New York Times to look at the history and legacy of slavery and its ongoing impact to our society in the United States.
Visit a museum of slavery, like the Whitney Plantation near New Orleans, the Lest We Forget Black Holocaust Museum of Slavery in Philadelphia or the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.
Support the work:
Support Take ‘Em Down NOLA by purchasing a cool zine or a t-shirt from their online store.
Sign here to remove all Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol building’s Statuary Hall.
Ask your representative to support Cory Booker (D-NJ)’s Confederate Monument Removal Act. It was introduced in 2017 but not has not been voted on yet.
Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Let us know how you’ve taken action using #LinkedAndLoud.

References
Bree Newsome reflects on taking down South Carolina's Confederate flag 2 years ago | Vox
Most Americans say the legacy of slavery still affects black people in the U.S. today | Pew Research
Teaching Hard History | Southern Poverty Law Center
Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories.| The New York Times
Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy | Southern Poverty Law Center
Removal of Confederate Monuments and Memorials | Wikipedia
The Young Black Activists Targeting New Orleans’s Confederate Monuments | New Republic
"Take It Off" Press Conference and Action: February 21, 2019 | Take ‘Em Down NOLA
What I told Mayor Mitch Landrieu About Co-opting Black Activist's Work | Medium
The 1619 Project | The New York Times