Newswise — The first book to critically explore memorials to the American Civil Rights Movement opens with a discussion of a 1981 "street fight in Chattanooga, Tennessee."
At issue in this confrontation was a petition by African American ministers to rename a street in the southern city after slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Today, named streets, along with monuments, parks, museums, schools and other memorials to the American Civil Rights Movement are sprinkled across the nation's landscape.
The creation of such memorials "is a watershed event in the commemoration of Southern and American history, an important reversal in the traditional invisibility of African Americans," say the authors of "Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory."
Geographer professors Owen J. Dwyer of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Derek H. Alderman, East Carolina University, explore the rationale and politics behind the placement of Civil Rights memorials in their new book published by the Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago.
By paying close attention to which stories, people and places are commemorated and which are forgotten, Dwyer and Alderman present a timely account of cultural politics and racism in American society.
According to the chapter on the Chattanooga street fight, the ministers felt the name change would "upgrade the social and physical aspects of the street." Opponents included a white real estate developer who hinted at abandoning a project because he might not be able to rent out office space with a King Street address because of "racial overtones."
"For many Dr. King embodies the (American Civil Rights) Movement. Critically examining his contested legacy offers perspective on the Movement's collective memory and the ongoing struggle to claim space for it," the authors say.
As geographers who study cultural landscapes and the meaning of place, the authors reveal that where the Movement is commemorated—and, conversely, where an event or person is not commemorated—affects how that person, place, or event is collectively understood.
"There are reasons why civil rights memorials are often not located at the traditional core of civic space—for example, at City Hall, in front of the County Courthouse, or along Main Street," Dwyer says.
The book is intended for those who wish to understand the Movement's legacy and the manner in which it is being documented via public spaces of commemoration.
"Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory" is illustrated with a gallery of 78 photos taken by Dwyer who, thanks to grants from several foundations, crisscrossed the South, visiting the Movement's famous and not-so-famous sites.
Dwyer (Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2000) is an associate professor and teaches cities, cartography, and cultural geography at IUPUI. Before arriving in Indianapolis, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University and the University of British Columbia. His field work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Graham Foundation for the Fine Arts, and the Association of American Geographers.
Derek H. Alderman (Ph.D., University of Georgia, 1998) is associate professor of geography at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. The author of more than 30 book chapters, journal articles, and essays, he is a nationally recognized expert on the politics of naming streets and other public places after Martin Luther King, Jr. He frequently consults with activists and municipal leaders involved in naming struggles.
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