Memory, Monuments, and Memorials
April 28–29, 2018
Monuments, memorials, and historical memory have been much in the news over the last year. In Charlottesville in August 2017, white supremacists rallied to oppose the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. The tiki-torch-brandishing crowd paraded through the city chanting, “You will not replace us; Jews will not replace us.” These slogans chillingly alerted Jews and African Americans alike that neo-Nazi ideology is once again targeting anyone not considered “white.”
With their common histories of racial victimization, Jews and African Americans share an urgent need to confront this resurgence. Join the JHSSC as we partner with The College of Charleston’s Program in the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW), African American Studies Program, and the Charleston branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life & History for the spring conference in Charleston focused on the history of minority exclusion and white supremacy in South Carolina, the monuments that enshrine public memory, and the ethics of cultural tourism.
Schedule subject to change.
Saturday 4/28
11:30–12:30 Registration/Lunch
12:30–2:00 Shared Memories, Equal Justice?
Moderator: Richard Gergel
Claire Curtis, Political Science Professor, College of Charleston
Rev. Joe Darby, Morris Brown AME Church, Charleston, SC
Armand Derfner, Civil Rights Attorney
Rev. Charles Heyward, Co-President, Charleston Area Justice Ministry
Bernie Powers, Professor of History, College of Charleston
2:15–3:00 Discussion of monuments in Marion Square
Theodore Rosengarten, Professor of Holocaust Studies, College of Charleston
3:00 – 3:15 Break
3:30–4:30 Keynote address
Michael Arad, Architect and Designer,
National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center
Evening Reception and Concert
Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, 90 Hasell Street
Sunday 4/29
9:00–10:00 JHSSC Board Meeting and Breakfast
Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Studies Center, 96 Wentworth Street
10:15–12:00 Difficult History: Plantations, Concentration Camps, and Cultural Tourism
Moderator: Robin Waites, Executive Director, Historic Columbia
Sara Daise, Cultural history interpreter
Shawn Halifax, Cultural History Interpretation Coordinator for Charleston County Parks, based at McLeod Plantation
Lilly Filler, Chair, SC Holocaust Council and JHSSC vice president
George McDaniel, Executive Director Emeritus, Drayton Hall
Joe McGill, The Slave Dwelling Project
David Popowski, attorney, member of Charleston Holocaust Council
Robert Rosen, attorney, author of Jewish Confederates, JHSSC past president