Opinions | Reckoning with our past means commemorating violent histories

Opinions | Reckoning with our past means commemorating violent histories
K. Stephen Prince
© Google Earth/Google Earth
Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in New Orleans, where a historical marker was later placed to remember the events of July 1900.
On a gray afternoon in December, a small group gathered in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. They came together to dedicate a historical marker to the events of late July 1900, when a confrontation between a Black man named Robert Charles and members of the New Orleans Police Department sparked a week of horrific racial violence.
In a city that is highly conscious of its own history, the marker represents the first official, public commemoration of this event. What happened in New Orleans in 1900 offers a powerful reminder of the centrality of violence to the history of race relations in the United States. What makes the story distinctive, however, is the figure of Charles, an ordinary man who waged a war on white supremacy and Jim Crow.

Related Keywords

Mississippi ,United States ,Liberia ,Americans ,Robert Charles ,Danny Barker ,Jelly Roll Morton ,Orleans Police Department ,Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard ,New Orleans ,Google Earth Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard ,Central City ,New Orleans Police Department ,African American ,White Southerners ,Stripping Black ,Jim Crow ,White New Orleanians ,Saratoga Street ,Baton Rouge ,மிசிசிப்பி ,ஒன்றுபட்டது மாநிலங்களில் ,லைபீரியா ,அமெரிக்கர்கள் ,ராபர்ட் சார்லஸ் ,டேனி பர்கர் ,ஜெல்லி ரோல் மோர்டன் ,ஆர்லீயந்ஸ் போலீஸ் துறை ,புதியது ஆர்லீயந்ஸ் ,மைய நகரம் ,புதியது ஆர்லீயந்ஸ் போலீஸ் துறை ,வெள்ளை தெற்கு மக்கள் ,நீக்குதல் கருப்பு ,ஜிம் காகம் ,சரடோகா தெரு ,தடியடி ரூஜ் ,