Mapping the Memorialization of Racial Violence: Lynching Markers in the US

Gianluca De Fazio, James Madison University

This presentation discusses the digital humanities project “Memorializing Racial Terror: Lynching Markers in the United States.” This project documents, catalogs, and maps more than 200 historical markers commemorating victims of lynching across the country, revealing how community driven memorialization efforts challenge our collective amnesia about racial terror. Through interactive mapping and visualization tools, the project explores the uneven landscape of acknowledging past racial terror, and the political and social forces that shape cross-state patterns of memorialization. This project ultimately demonstrates how spatial humanities can confront legacies of racial violence, support community remembrance, and challenge the dominant commemorative landscape in the US.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 213. Mapping Racial Violence