Winter 2020 MATTERS Y “WE WILL PROVE OURSELVES MEN” Art at the center of Regimental Flag WINTER 2018 127th United States Colored Troops, 1864 HISTORY MATTERS HISTORY 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS As we move into a new decade, we wanted to briefly reflect on 2019. It would not be an understatement to call it a historic year for our institution. 03–07 19 Throughout 2019, we continued On Background Donor Spotlight our efforts to ensure that through Message from the Chair Tamara and Ken Bazzle & CEO all of our programs, exhibitions, Confronting Difficult History community engagement work, Atlanta History Center research, collection development, Guiding Principles A Third Place for Atlanta 20 and educational school tours and Programs outreach, we strive to connect An Interview with Author Eric Foner people and stimulate thinking and 08 dialogue about history and culture. Midtown That truly means forging personal connections, as well as making Party on Peachtree connections between our shared history and culture. In all of this, we seek 22–27 to use our reflections on the past to create a better Atlanta. Over nine months after the grand opening of Cyclorama: Support The Big Picture, we are pleased to report that the new experience has spurred admission growth of 70% over the same time period last year. In addition, 9-13 the interpretation of the painting as an artifact of historical memory has resonated with our visitors. Tens of thousands of people have experienced Goizueta Gardens & the restored painting and accompanying film and exhibition, and we are so 28–29 grateful for the enormous show of support from our community. Campus Updates However, we are still routinely asked: “When is the cyclorama going to be Swan House’s New Drive Operations & Management open?” Please tell everyone that it is here, ready, and waiting for exploration, Creating a Green Campus at least until our license from the City of Atlanta expires in 2090, so don’t miss out. With tours offered seven days a week, you have lots of opportunities From Construction Site to New to visit, bring your friends, and share your thoughts with us. Garden: Why Soil Matters Many more exciting things are ahead for Atlanta History Center. As we 30–31 move into the 2020s, we look towards our institution’s 100th birthday in 2026. While approaching this milestone, we continue to think strategically Volunteers, about what we want to be the next 100 years. As an important part of this Board of Trustees, MESSAGE planning process, we developed Guiding Principles governing how we 14–18 explore history and interact with audiences who walk onto our campuses & Staff or encounter us out in the community every day. Through our Guiding Exhibition Outlook Principles, we seek to approach all subjects, particularly difficult ones, with empathy and humility. These principles are at the core of all our exhibitions A Tour of Any Great Change FROM THE and programs, such as the interpretation in Cyclorama: The Big Picture, and Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow we pursue this approach elsewhere, such as our Confederate Monument Interpretation Guide. Olympic Games Exhibition Over 93 years of history-making does not happen without strong CHAIR & CEO community support. We offer our most sincere gratitude to our members, donors, visitors, and friends for your commitment to our institution Cover Artifact and mission. Jocelyn Hunter This flag was the banner of the 127th United Beneath the motto “We Will Prove Ourselves will be on display in the Atlanta showing States Colored Troops (USCT). The USCT Men,” a USCT soldier is depicted marching of the traveling exhibition Black Citizenship Chair, Board of Trustees was a special branch of the U.S. Army formed off to war while waving to Columbia, who in the Age of Jim Crow, which opens after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. symbolizes the United States and liberty. January 18, 2020. Nearly 180,000 African American men served The 127th USCT flew this flag in combat in The United Stated Colored Troops 127th Sheffield Hale in the USCT. Three-fourths of those soldiers Virginia and also at the surrender of Robert E. Regimental Flag is a collection acquisition with President & CEO had been enslaved at one time. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse. funds from the Sheffield-Harrold Charitable The USCT soldiers vowed to prove their The flag, painted by African American artist Trust. worth by fighting for their lives and freedom. and philanthropist David Bustill Bowser, ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER HISTORY MATTERS 3 ON BACKGROUND ON BACKGROUND CONFRONTING DIFFICULT HISTORY BY F. SHEFFIELD HALE At Atlanta History Center, we use our recommendations of quality scholarship, and Legalized segregation was implemented historical collections, knowledgeable staff latest updates from around the country. As the in a series of court battles, including the with a rich and nuanced understanding debate intensified, especially after the deadly Supreme Court ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson of history, and passion for our mission to rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, I in 1896 that legalized “separate but equal” connect people, history, and culture to was appointed by Atlanta’s Mayor and City accommodations based on race. During this work towards our goal of building a shared Council as the co-chair of Atlanta’s advisory time, monuments of triumphant Confederate understanding of our collective history. committee on Confederate monuments and generals astride horses and soldiers elevated Confronting difficult moments in the past street names. As an institution, we continued on pedestals were erected in places of that continue to influence our world today to hone our online toolkit, have conversations power and centers of community such as is never easy, but it is a vital part of developing with communities around the country, and courthouses, state capitols, and town squares an accurate, meaningful, and useful historical research case studies on this issue. in hundreds of cities and towns across the understanding. The tools on our website help explain United States. In 2015, when a mass murderer motivated the development of Civil War historical Decades later, another spike in by white supremacist ideals killed nine memory and how that process affects our Confederate monument-building occurred In broad discussions about race and civil rights in monuments might provide one such topic for this exploration—using the online African American church congregants in present moment. After the conclusion of during the Massive Resistance era following America, we tend to talk about the Civil War and then toolkit and scholarship, we at Atlanta History Center encourage thoughtful, Charleston, South Carolina, communities the war, faced with defeat and massive loss the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board jump 100 years to the Civil Rights movement. The inclusive, and historically grounded community discussions. across the country were horrified. Photos of of life, many white Southerners sought to of Education decision outlawing school Jim Crow and Massive Resistance eras have had long the killer posing with Confederate symbols redefine the meaning of the war through a segregation. The largest Confederate lasting impacts on our country today and were central Through such community discussions emerged, launching an intense debate over strain of historical memory referred to as the monument ever is an example of a Massive to the creation of Confederate monuments. Without and action, we can create trust, Civil War history and its continuing influence Lost Cause. The historical evidence is clear: Resistance monument. Two months after a full understanding of this time period, we cannot on our lives. Confederate monuments slavery was the primary cause of secession the landmark ruling, Georgia gubernatorial understand how and why Confederate monuments understanding, and the ability to work and symbols are directly related to what and the Civil War. The Lost Cause instead candidate Marvin Griffin made a campaign are problematic. If left unchallenged and not put into historians call “historical memory”— the way posits that the Confederate states seceded promise to purchase Stone Mountain and context, monuments can continue to promote inaccurate across differences. we choose to remember the past. Historians because of their commitment to states’ rights restart the Confederate memorial carving. historical narratives, especially that of the Lost Cause. at Atlanta History Center thought critically only—omitting slavery from the narrative. In 1916, the Stone Mountain Confederate We take the position that providing evidence-based about the role of public history in this debate, This highly influential but largely inaccurate Memorial Association, a group with many history to contextualize these monuments must be done, recognizing its complexity. historical memory spread throughout the ties to the Ku Klux Klan, commissioned a but we leave it up to local communities to determine After extensive internal discussion, we South and the rest of the country. At the carving of Confederate leaders on the side the best solution through an intentional, community- IMAGES Atlanta History Center advised the City of Atlanta in the creation of decided that Atlanta History Center has a same time, Jim Crow segregation laws were of the mountain. That effort was abandoned driven process. In some cases, that solution might be exhibition panels placed near the Peace Monument in Piedmont Park (left) and the responsibility to engage in this debate about implemented nationwide. in the late 1920s. Following Griffin’s election, large exhibition panels, like we did in Atlanta. In others, monument on Peachtree Battle Avenue (right). The fabrication and installation of the meaning and presentation of history. We Confederate monuments are tangible in 1956 the state flag was altered to include the solution might look like moving the monument to these panels was made possible by a donor contribution to Atlanta History Center. created an online Confederate Monument representations of this process.