Location, Politics, and the Production of Civil Rights Memorial Landscapes¹

This study examines the relative location of civil rights memorial landscapes in Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; and Memphis, TN. Produced over the past two decades, these memorials are the largest and most popular of several dozen associated with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The museums and monuments under study are important sites at which the movement's legacy for contemporary racial politics is being defined and debated. Investigating the relative location of these memorial landscapes discloses the otherwise hidden histories of the memorials themselves. Two instances of relative location are considered. First, the pattern of presence and absence that characterizes their location inside and outside the South is discussed. Second, the location of civil rights memorials amid the remains of formerly segregated Black business districts is examined. In both cases, heritage tourism and urban redevelopment are shown to exercise a strong influence on the content and location of these sites.