After removal, communities must face the enormous challenge of remaking divisive public spaces into places that promote healing and reconciliation. We suggest that communities confronting these issues and seeking a way forward look at the recent experience in the city of Memphis.
As part of a national, multicity effort, a collaboration of public and non-profit partners in Memphis has transformed a six-city block area adjacent to downtown and the Mississippi River called the Fourth Bluff into a series of connected, vibrant and dynamic spaces that include a library, a trail and two parks. This transformation included changing the names of parks and the dramatic removal of Confederate monuments, but the work didn’t stop there.