ABSTRACT
By taking South Carolina—and more particularly Charleston—as a case study, this chapter aims to analyze how, despite its recent efforts to adopt a more consensual and racially inclusive approach in the memorialization of the past, the state has been the site of representational struggles which hinge around race and the production, as well as the control, of public historical knowledge. It examines how, in the context of an upsurge of racial violence in the United States, the memorialization process in South Carolina has become increasingly antagonistic as it faces the conundrum of both redressing past historic injustices that stem from slavery and racial segregation as well as providing an accurate, comprehensive, and racially inclusive history that would partake in building more social cohesiveness. Finally, the chapter argues that political, economic, and racial factors ultimately determine and shape the commemorative landscape.
