Countering Dominant Narratives in Public Memory

Abstract

Purpose: State historical commissions tend to avoid erecting historical marker texts (HMTs), memorials, or monuments that document violence towards Black and brown individuals. The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) uses a series of tactics to circumvent local historical commissions to memorialize victims of lynching. Methods: In this study, we use the EJI's Community Remembrance Project (CRP), an informational handbook for community activists, as our data set. We apply the 4Rs (Walton, Moore, & Jones, 2019) and tactical technical communication in our analysis of the Community Remembrance Project and argue that the document functions as a coalitional, truth-telling tactic to redress inequalities in public memory. Results: We found that the EJI's CRP efforts with the Historical Marker Project clearly demonstrate how coalitions can tactically intervene in racist systems—like historical commissions that reject truth-telling efforts—by creating a different path for historical markers to be erected in communities. Conclusion: We argue that public memory texts often reinforce racism by avoiding topics like racial terror lynching and that these omissions have cultural and material consequences on communities. We contend that technical communicators can intervene in public memory systems and promote truth-telling through coalitional approaches to community activism.