ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the marking of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in a wider context by contrasting and comparing the scope and message of the exhibitions and displays in Britain to the commemoration of civil rights anniversaries in the United States. This provides a means of gauging how far the heritage sector in Britain has come in addressing issues of social justice, rewriting national narratives and engaging with the politics of difference. The somewhat anxious marking of the bicentenary will be assessed with the forthright examples from the United States.
