Movements that challenge former national icons demonstrate the importance of history-making in an age of racial reconciliation. But ‘history wars’ won’t get us anywhere.
Few people embody the contradictions of U.S. history like the author of the Star Spangled Banner, someone who denounced slavery as a moral wrong but rejected racial equality.
The New York Times’ 1619 project and Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission had very different interpretations of US history. Similarly, the Bible has more than one narrative.
A reenactment of the largest slave rebellion in US history involves a plot twist. A scholar who studies race, history and memory says the new ending can spark new beginnings.