2017/05/17 by Jenny Woodley · 1 citation
Psychology · Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration #Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies #Identity (music) #Gender studies #Statue #African american #Race (biology) #Capital (architecture) #Collective memory #Political science #History #Sociology #Law #Art #Art history #Anthropology #Archaeology #Aesthetics
paper · doi:10.1017/s0021875817000536
openalex publication_date 2017/05/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The Bethune Memorial, in Washington, DC's Lincoln Park, was erected to celebrate the life and achievements of civil rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune. When it was dedicated in 1974 it became the first monument to an African American, and the first to a woman, on federal land in the capital. This article interprets the monument and its accompanying discourses. It examines how race and gender are constructed in the memorial, and what this suggests about the creation of a collective memory and identity. Bethune was remembered as an American, a black American, and a black American woman. The article explores the racial and gendered tensions in the commemoration, and how the statue both reinforced and challenged a national American memory.