*Across the country, communities are wrestling with a difficult question: What should happen to buildings and monuments created to enforce racism?
Fort Worth, Texas, is offering one answer. Organizers are converting a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium into a public arts center named in honor of a Black lynching victim, AXIOS reports.
The property once housed Klan Klavern No. 101, and its next chapter will center on performances, public programming, organizing and historical education.
“We cannot erase history. We should not delete history, because we need to learn from it,” said Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime, executive director of Transform 1012 N. Main Street.
Scroll to continue reading
Gonzalez-Jaime said leaders heard from people targeted by white supremacy and from residents who wanted the structure destroyed. That process shaped a project intended to place community needs above the building’s original meaning.
“How can we use this space that was used to teach hate into a place to teach understanding, to teach love, to teach healing?” Gonzalez-Jaime said.
Fort Worth is not alone. A former segregated theater in Laurens, South Carolina, later used as a KKK museum, now houses an anti-hate education program. New Orleans converted a segregated school into a center with civil rights exhibits, advocacy groups and senior housing.
In Mississippi, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is working to memorialize the barn where Till was tortured and killed in 1955.
“We have to sit with the worst of our humanity,” executive director Patrick Weems said. “We’re not going to let this be erased. We’re not going to let the murderers who wanted this to be erased (and) get away with that.”
The local projects arrive as federal agencies face pressure to narrow how slavery and racism are presented at government sites. That tension has made community-led preservation efforts increasingly important.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Obama Center Dedication in Chicago Set to Draw Star-Studded Lineup
We Publish Breaking News 24/7. Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for our Free daily newsletter HERE.
Leave a Reply