COMMEMORATIVE ACTIVISM: TRACING BLACK NATIONALISM THROUGH CONTEMPORARY CAMPAIGNS TO MEMORIALIZE U.S. SLAVERY, 1991-2017

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorParry-Giles, Shawn Jen_US
dc.contributor.authorFitzmaurice, Megan Ireneen_US
dc.contributor.departmentCommunicationen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-17T06:19:51Z
dc.date.available2018-07-17T06:19:51Z
dc.date.issued2018en_US
dc.description.abstractWhile much of current public discourse focuses on the ways that black activists are working to desecrate or destroy racist memorials, there has been less discussion about the ways that lobbying to produce antiracist memorials can also serve as a form of protest. This study engages three case studies wherein black activist groups fought for the construction of slavery memorials in New York City, Philadelphia, and Richmond. These instances of commemorative activism are the focus of this study, wherein activists challenge existing commemorative culture by engaging alternative memorial practices. The underlying premise of this study is that these slavery memorials and the activists’ rhetoric resisted absent and/or distorted memories of slavery in their communities. This study analyzes the debates surrounding these memorials to demonstrate ways that the activists recirculated historical ideologies of black nationalism in their protest rhetoric. Specifically, the activists engaged themes of self-determination, black liberation, black power, and Pan-Africanism as they sought to challenge a commemorative culture rooted in white supremacy. This study accordingly situates commemorative activism as a contemporary strategy of resistance in the ongoing black freedom struggle. The black activists in this study fought to determine the commemorative landscape, liberate their ancestors’ memories from post-slavery containment, recover memories of black resistance from selective amnesia, and advance global solidarity surrounding memories of the slave trade and ongoing anti-black racism. This study also examines ways that the subsequent commemorations represent enduring repositories of black nationalist ideologies, challenging racist cultural attitudes embedded in the memorials’ environment. Through their form and function, these commemorations visualize the continued relevance of self-determination, black liberation, black power, and Pan-Africanism within post-slavery communities. These memorials ultimately reflect the beliefs of the activists who fought for their construction, revealing the radical potential of commemorative activism to challenge racist attitudes, structures, and landscapes.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2BK16S6P
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21002
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledRhetoricen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledAfrican American studiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledActivismen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledBlack Nationalismen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCommemorationen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledPublic Memoryen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSlaveryen_US
dc.titleCOMMEMORATIVE ACTIVISM: TRACING BLACK NATIONALISM THROUGH CONTEMPORARY CAMPAIGNS TO MEMORIALIZE U.S. SLAVERY, 1991-2017en_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Fitzmaurice_umd_0117E_19009.pdf
Size:
1.45 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

UMD Theses and Dissertations
Communication Theses and Dissertations