The Charlottesville Virginia Tragedy and Historical Artifacts: An Essay Reviewing Public Culture and Libraries' Responsibility in Changing the Narrative for Antiracism

In a review of the tragedy that occurred in Charlottesville Virginia on August 11, 2017, this essay discusses the public perspectives and the view of public culture for historical artifacts and monuments, especially those whose pasts do not align with the views of our community today. Based on the renaming of a public park and removal of a Confederate soldier statue, protestors made up of hate groups claiming loss of heritage and counter protestors converged on the site. As tempers escalated, a protestor drove his car into the counter protesters where multiple people were injured, one person was killed, and two responding police officers also lost their lives. Historically, and in other countries, the removal of monuments whose imagery and historical meaning are painful to the community today is a commonplace practice. Within the United States, however, this leads to protests, hate groups that claim these artifacts as their heritage, counter protests, and painful outcomes with harsh repercussions including loss of precious life, as occurred in Charlottesville. Libraries, and other GLAM institutions (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums), have a key responsibility for educating their communities on the true history of these artifacts. This outreach work is especially vital in communities where laws have been enacted that disallow the removal or relocation of monuments, even those whose effigies inspire hate, as is the case for 90 Civil War statues in North Carolina. This essay reviews key literature, as well as personal experiences through blog posts, relating to cultural heritage and its relationship to public culture. This review is done to identify productive measures that libraries can take to break the archaic perspective of being neutral and becoming social justice advocates for their communities.