“This is an issue that touches the soul of a city.”1
An Overview
Behind a man clutching two Confederate flags on Richmond’s Monument Avenue, local reporters gather in an attempt to capture the powerful, and yet familiar, scene of the past and present colliding. In the course of the night, someone spray painted the message “Black Lives Matter” in foot-tall, black lettering across the base of the Jefferson Davis monument. So much of Richmond’s contentious history is captured in this moment. The well-known tension embodied in the divisive debate surrounding the boulevard’s honoring of Confederate leaders begs an answer to a question that is anything but simple: Whose story do we tell?
As the Confederate-sympathetic man began marching in front of the vandalized statue on the verdant median, I contemplated this question as I grew even more aware of this city’s complex memorialized story. Then I wondered what my students would think of this event occurring just a mile and a half down the same road many of them take to school.
In this unit, my students will begin exploring some of these big questions surrounding cultural narratives and the role of media and public art in bringing their tensions to the forefront. Throughout this unit my students will participate in an inquiry-based approach to understanding some of the complexity and nuances of our Southern city’s identity. Specifically, they will analyze various key arguments surrounding the 1996 addition of the Arthur Ashe monument to this historic avenue. After providing sufficient background surrounding the formation of the avenue, students will delve into the various nuances of this local debate over public space and memory. By tackling this real-world issue, students will strengthen their ability to synthesize their understandings of Richmond’s connection to the Civil War and the on-going debate over placing Arthur Ashe on a boulevard commemorating Confederate heroes.
Additionally, students will evaluate the complex and dynamic nature that public art has in community identity. We will approach public art as an integral component of public landscape and memory. Students will also ask questions about the role of local art, and as professor Chris Post writes, “by doing so, art becomes a forum for discourse over essential cultural and political activities, their history, and their representation.”2 Ultimately, this dialogic approach will lead students to a better understanding of the potential for their own work to engage with and shape public discourses around their city’s past.
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