Contested memory in the birthplace of a king: A case study of Auburn Avenue and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Park

Cultural Geographies

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 87-109

  Inwood, Joshua F ^a  

^a AUBURN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Dr Martin Luther King Jr; Hegemony; Landscapes of memory; Memorialization; Place identity; Race

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE; HEGEMONY; MEMORY; RACE; SENSE OF PLACE;

EID: 58449115207     PISSN: 14744740     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1474474008097981     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. D. Alderman, 'Street names and the scaling of memory: The politics of commemorating Martin Luther King Jr within the African American community', Area 35 (2003), p. 165.
2. I analyzed my data using a dual-stream coding process. As part of that process two African-American undergraduates familiar with the Auburn Avenue community were hired to help code the interviews. We each independently identified themes and compared them as a group. In many cases we came up with the same codes, often under different names. In cases where we came up with different codes, or had different interpretations, we worked towards building consensus over a broad set of themes and ideas. I employed the dual stream coding process in an effort to triangulate this research project.
3. D. Goldberg, The racial state (Oxford, Blackwell, 2002).
4. Ibid., p. 4.
5. 5 J. Inwood and D. Martin, 'Whitewash: White privilege and racialized landscapes at the University of Georgia', Social and cultural geography 19 (2008).
6. Goldberg D., The racial state, p. 49.
7. R. Schein, 'The place of landscape: A conceptual framework for interpreting an American scene', Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87 (1997), pp. 660-80, p. 661.
8. B. Ladd, The ghost of Berlin (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1997), p. 11.
9. I. Karp, 'IntroductTon: Museums and communities: the politics of public culture', in I. Karp, C. Mullen Kreamer and S. Lavine, eds, Museums and communities (Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), pp. 1-2.
10. Ibid., p. 4.
11. M. Omi and H. Winant, Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (New York, Routledge, 1994) p., 57.
12. Ibid., p. 191, n. 22.
13. 13 A. Coombes, Visual culture and public memory in a democratic South Africa (Durham, Duke University Press, 2003), p. 1.
14. Karp, 'Museums and communities', p. 4.
15. K. Till, 'Staging the past: Landscape designs, cultural identity and erinnerungspolitik at Berlin's Neue Wache', Ecumene 6 (1999), pp, 251-84, p. 254.
16. Ibid., p. 254.
17. D. Atwater and S. Herndon, 'Cultural space and race: The national civil rights museum and museum Africa', The Howard journal of communication 14 (2003), p. 17.
18. S. Hoelscher, 'Making place, making race: Performances of whiteness in the Jim Crow south', Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93 (2003), pp. 657-86, p. 661.
19. O. Dwyer, 'Symbolic accretion and commemoration', Social and cultural geography 5 (2004), pp. 419-36, p. 414.
20. Goldberg D., Racial state, p. 250.
21. Recent examples include opposition to the renewal of the Voters Rights Act, the appointment of conservative lawyers with experience on cases of 'reverse discrimination' to the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department and federal lawsuits claiming discrimination in university admission policies. See: Associated Press, 'Two Georgia lawmakers urging lawsuits against Voting Rights Act', Atlanta Journal-Constitution (11 September 2006). C. Savage, 'Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era. Conservative learnings stressed', Boston globe (23 July 2006). Staff Reporter, 'With new faces, new types of cases', Boston globe (23 July 2006).
22. Alderman, 'Street names', p. 165.
23. M. Dyson, 'Mixed blessing: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the lessons of ambiguous heroism', in Michael Eric Dyson, ed., The Michael Eric Dyson reader (New York, Basic Civitas Books, 2004), p. 287.
24. D. Alridge, 'The limits of master narratives in history textbooks: An analysis of representations of Martin Luther King Jr.', Teachers college record 108 (2006), pp. 662-86.
25. See: Alridge, 'The limits of master narratives in history textbooks', pp. 662-86; M. Dyson, The Michael Eric Dyson reader (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004); M. Long, Against us, but for us: Martin Luther King Jr. and the state (Macon, Mercer University Press, 2002); M. Dawson, Black visions: The roots of contemporary African-American political ideologies (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001); H. Baker, 'Critical memory and the black public sphere', Public culture 7 (1994), pp. 3-33.
26. T. Branch, Pillar of fire: America in the King years, 1963-1965 (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1998), pp. 1-746.
27. M. King, 'I have a dream': A testament of hope. The essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., J. Washington, ed. (San Francisco, Harper Collins, 1986), p. 217.
28. Ibid.
29. M. Brown, 'Liberalism': The dictionary of human geography, R. Johnston, D. Gregory, G. Pratt and M. Watts, eds (Oxford, Blackwell, 2000), p. 447.
30. Dawson M., Black visions, p. 253.
31. Ibid., pp. 252-3.
32. M. Long, Against us, but for us: Martin Luther King Jr. and the state (Macon, Mercer University Press, 2002), p. 88.
33. T. Branch, At Canaan's edge: America in the King years 1965-68 (New York, Simon and Schuster, 2006).
34. 34 M. King, Where do we go from here: Chaos or community? (New York, Harper and Row, 1967), p. 69.
35. M. King, 'Where do we go from here?', A testament of hope. The essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., J. Washington, ed. (San Francisco, Harper Collins, 1986) p. 245.
36. Ibid., p. 251.
37. Dawson M., Black visions.
38. M. King, 'A Christmas sermon on peace.' A testament of hope. The essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., J. Washington, ed. (San Francisco, Harper Collins, 1986), p. 257.
39. Fortune magazine as quoted in D. Grant, The way it was in the South: The black experience in Georgia, J. Grant, ed. (Athens, The University of Georgia Press, 1993), p. 543.
40. G. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree meets Sweet Auburn (New York, Penguine, 1996), p. 123.
41. As quoted in Pomerantz, Where Peachtree meets Sweet Auburn, p. 124.
42. Ibid., p. 485.
43. Ibid., p. 129.
44. National Park Service, General management plan development concept plan and environmental assessment of the Martin Luther King Jr. national historic site (Washington, DC, The Department of the Interior, 1985), http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/gmp_1985.htm/
45. Several authors have detailed the public feud between the King family and the NPS (e.g. Rutheiser, 1996; Dyson, 2004). For purposes of this paper I provide the main points of the disagreement between King, the NPS and the City of Atlanta.
46. C. Rutheiser, Imaginering Atlanta: The politics of place in the city of dreams (New York, Penguin, 1996), p. 130.
47. Ibid., p. 131.
48. Ibid., pp. 130-131.
49. Dwyer, 'Symbolic accretion and commemoration'.
50. Rutheiser, Imaginering Atlanta.
51. C. Stone, Regime politics governing Atlanta: 1946-1988 (Lawrence, The University of Kansas Press, 1989), pp. 1-314.
52. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree meets Sweet Auburn.
53. National Park Service, General management plan, p. 23.
54. Ibid., p. 64. Membership on the commission consisted of: Three members appointed by the King Center for Social Change, two members appointed by the Governor of Georgia, two members appointed by the Mayor, one member from Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Chairman of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission, and one member appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.
55. J. Bodnar, Remaking America: Public memory, commemoration and patriotism in the twentieth century (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 199.
56. Ibid., p. 200.
57. Ibid., p. 200.
58. National Park Service, General management plan, p. 32.
59. National Park Service, National park system plan history (The Department of the Interior, 1972), p. 74.
60. National Park Service, General management plan, p. 32.
61. National Park Service, Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site strategic plan (The Department of the Interior, 2006).
62. 62 See: T. Cresswell and G. Hoskins, 'Place persistence, and practice: evaluating historical significance at Angel Island San Francisco, and Maxwell Street, Chicago', Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98(2), (2008), pp. 392-413.
63. Dwyer O., 'Symbolic accretion and commemoration'.
64. See: T. Branch, Parting the waters: America in the King years 1954-1963 (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1988).
65. Dwyer O., 'Symbolic accretion and commemoration'.
66. Goldberg D., Racial state, p. 250.
67. Ibid., p. 251.
68. As of 2007 Bill had retired from the Park Service and is no longer the Superintendent of the MLK National Historic Site.
69. Dwyer O., 'Symbolic accretion'.
70. C. West, The Cornell West reader (New York, Basic Civitas Books, 1999), p. 432.
71. 71 Ibid., p. 433.
72. These efforts went so far as to audio tape King engaged in extramarital affairs and then to send those tapes to King in an effort to get him to commit suicide. These tapes were ultimately intercepted by Correta Scott King before King was to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. See: Branch, Parting the waters and Branch, Pillar of fire, pp. 528-9.
73. Dawson M., Black visions.
74. M. King, Conversation with Martin Luther King': The essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. J. Washington, ed. (San Francisco, Harper Collins, 1986), p. 676.
75. C. Sitton, 'Atlanta's good example: "good sense and dignity"' (New York Times, 6 May 1963), p. 246.
76. P. Range, 'Capital of black is bountiful' (The New York Times, 7 April 1974), p. 268.
77. Rutheiser, Imagineering Atlanta.
78. Goldberg D., Racial state, p. 250.
79. N. Johnson, Public memory, Companion to Cultural Geography, J. Duncan, N. Johnson, and R. Schein, eds (Oxford, Blackwell, 2004), p. 323.