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\u201cWe need to be very careful of the memories we choose and how we deploy those memories to serve particular ends,\u201d Jepson School professor Julian Hayter told those assembled at the University of Richmond\u2019s kick-off MLK Day event. Most of us remember only a few phrases of King\u2019s famous \u2018I Have a Dream\u2019 speech, he said, and we too readily congratulate ourselves on the progress our nation has made toward social integration.<\/p>\n
We often forget\u2014sometimes intentionally\u2014the parts of King\u2019s speech that exhorted us to fight poverty, police brutality, and persistent segregation, Dr. Hayter said. Much work remains to be done in these areas.<\/p>\n
Later on MLK Day, Jepson School visiting lecturer Lauranett Lee and University of Richmond President Emeritus Edward Ayers, co-chairs of the University\u2019s Presidential Commission on Institutional History and Identity<\/a>, gave an update on the commission\u2019s work.<\/p>\n They noted the University\u2019s original affiliation with the Baptist Church may put it in a unique position to share a vast trove of Virginia Baptist Historical Society<\/a> records, including over 50,000 records of enslaved people, dating from the 18th<\/sup> century on. Digitizing these records could make the genealogy\u2014and the memory\u2014of these enslaved people widely accessible for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our moment as public historians to push forward the University and lift up its history,\u201d Dr. Lee said. \u201cIt\u2019s important that we recognize the complexity in our story, and the erasures as well, and that we do what we can to address the injustices.\u201d<\/p>\n When President Crutcher asked Dr. Lee to co-chair the committee, she said she recognized it as an opportunity to make a difference. \u201cBecause I am in the classroom with students,\u201d she said, \u201cI see how little they know of our University\u2019s history and our city\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n But that could change, if, as Lee envisions it, students and faculty play a central role in this possible digitization project.<\/p>\n Drs. Hayter, Lee, and Ayers served on the city of Richmond\u2019s Monument Avenue Commission<\/a>, tasked by Mayor Levar Stoney with making recommendations about the future of the Confederate statues lining one of the city\u2019s major boulevards. They helped lead the civil discourse<\/a> on this hotly debated topic. As historians, all three recognize the significance of these monuments, not only for the story of history they tell, but also for the story they don\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n How we choose to remember history\u2014and what we choose to forget\u2014contribute to the success or failure of our efforts to create a more educated, just society. We can make progress only if we commit to a thorough, inclusive telling of our history. A telling that challenges us to do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe need to be very careful of the memories we choose and how we deploy those memories to serve particular ends,\u201d Jepson School professor Julian Hayter told those assembled at the University of Richmond\u2019s kick-off MLK Day event. Most of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/leadershipspeculations\/files\/2019\/01\/LauranettEdMLKDay2019Twitter-1024x683.jpg\")
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