Participation Type
Panel
Presentation #1 Title
Narratives of displacement: Reconsidering race and archaeological research in the Virginia Blue Ridge
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In the 1930s, Shenandoah National Park was established in the Virginia Blue Ridge through the displacement of nearly five hundred Euro-American families. At the time, hackneyed stereotypes about backward mountaineers were mobilized to garner public support for the condemnation of family farms and the institutionalization and sterilization of some of the most impoverished residents. The anger felt by the displaced and now their descendants has barely abated. That said, in the 1990s, a park service-sponsored archaeological project that I directed helped to overturn the prevailing narrative and transform park interpretation. While I am proud of that work, what I want to discuss today is what we overlooked: namely, the role of racism in the construction of a Blue Ridge history. Because there were no African American families living specifically within the boundaries targeted for park inclusion, the history of the entire Blue Ridge was tacitly whitewashed.
Part of the Panel: Stuff Matters: Radical Archaeologies Across Appalachia, Pt.2.
Narratives of Displacement
Narratives of displacement: Reconsidering race and archaeological research in the Virginia Blue Ridge
In the 1930s, Shenandoah National Park was established in the Virginia Blue Ridge through the displacement of nearly five hundred Euro-American families. At the time, hackneyed stereotypes about backward mountaineers were mobilized to garner public support for the condemnation of family farms and the institutionalization and sterilization of some of the most impoverished residents. The anger felt by the displaced and now their descendants has barely abated. That said, in the 1990s, a park service-sponsored archaeological project that I directed helped to overturn the prevailing narrative and transform park interpretation. While I am proud of that work, what I want to discuss today is what we overlooked: namely, the role of racism in the construction of a Blue Ridge history. Because there were no African American families living specifically within the boundaries targeted for park inclusion, the history of the entire Blue Ridge was tacitly whitewashed.
Part of the Panel: Stuff Matters: Radical Archaeologies Across Appalachia, Pt.2.
