Subject Area
American history; History
Description
This thesis, titled “Remembering in the North: How the Civil Rights Movement is Told Through Monuments,” examines how the Civil Rights Movement is remembered in the North through public monuments. The Civil Rights Movement in the North has not received the same level of recognition compared to the South in public memory, yet the stories and activists in the North deserve the same acknowledgement. The cities of Newark, NJ, and Albany, NY, act as case studies to illustrate how the racism and discrimination, which prompted the Civil Rights Movement, were present in the North during the movement. Both cities, like many across the country, chose Dr. Martin Luther King as the figure to memorialize. Newark does have monuments commemorating the racist past that led to the Newark Rebellion of 1967; however, it is not taken care of or treated equally to the memorial to King. In Albany, The Brothers, a local civil rights activist group, are completely erased from public memory, with no acknowledgement of their crucial work in Albany’s Black community. The national fable of the Civil Rights Movement in public monuments downplays the truth about America’s racist past and the impact of the Civil Rights Movement as a mass-organized and grassroots movement that also impacted areas outside of the U.S. South. The monuments in Newark, NJ, and Albany, NY, uphold this fable as they reduce a complex country-wide movement to isolated individuals and instances, pushing the narrative that the Civil Rights Movement was only a non-violent push for equality in the South led solely by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, which obscures local civil rights activism across the country.
Publisher
Providence College
Academic Year
2025-2026
Date
Spring 2026
Type
Thesis
Format
Text
.pdf (text under image)
Language
English
Start Date
3-21-2026 2:45 PM
