The American Association for State and Local History Guide
Read my Museums Commemorating Tragedy essay here.
I was honored to be included in this timely new book that was published by Rowman & Littlefield in October 2017:
“Commemoration: The American Association for State and Local History Guide serves as a handbook for historic site managers, heritage professionals, and all manner of public historians who contend daily with the ground-level complexities of commemoration. Its fourteen short essays are intended as tools for practitioners, students, and anyone else confronted with common problems in commemorative practice today. Of particular concern are strategies for expanding commemoration across the panoply of American identities, confronting tragedy and difficult pasts, and doing responsible work in the face of persistent economic and political turmoil. A special afterword explores the role of emotion in modern commemoration and what it suggests about possibilities for engaging new audiences.
“Rowman & Littlefield, in partnership with the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), publishes technical and professional information for those who practice and support history, and addresses issues critical to the field of state and local history. AASLH provides leadership, service, and support for its members who preserve and interpret state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful in American Society.”
Chapter 13 covers my experience working with Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, in the wake of the tragedy that resulted in the deaths of nine of its members.
Read my Museums Commemorating Tragedy essay here.
…”The setting in this case is Charleston, South Carolina, where in 2015 twenty-one year old Dylan Roof entered the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and murdered nine people in hopes of igniting a race war. The shooting occurred at a time, as McDaniel tell us, when mass killings had seemed to become a fixture in American life. And yet, the Charleston shooting was more than just that. What transpired at the old church, itself a monument to the modern civil rights movement, rattled our notion that decades of commemorative work had somehow relegated the terrors of race hatred to memory . McDaniel’s essay is a forceful reckoning with the “dark side, ” as he puts it, but its strength lies not only in its emotional power. We find here too, outlined in practical terms, a commemorative prescription for resisting hatred during an era wherein heritage professionals have taken on the unlikely role of first responders.” –ed.
To order your hardcover edition or ebook, please visit the Rowman & Littlefield website.
George W. McDaniel, Ph.D., is President of McDaniel Consulting, LLC, a strategy firm that helps organizations use history to build bridges within itself and to its broader constituents. The company’s tag line, “Building Bridges through History,” is grounded in McDaniel’s personal beliefs and his experience in site management, preservation, education, board development, fundraising, and community outreach. Rather than using history to divide us, he strives to help organizations use history, especially local history, to enhance cross-cultural understanding and to support local museums, preservation, and education. Dr. McDaniel recently led volunteer efforts with Emanuel AME Church and historical organizations in Charleston to use historic preservation to enhance racial reconciliation and healing.
McDaniel is also the Executive Director Emeritus of Drayton Hall, a historic site in Charleston, SC, owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He retired from Drayton Hall in 2015 after 25 years of distinguished service.
Header: Detail from the cover of the AASLH book “Commemoration”
McDaniel Consulting LLC is a strategy firm that helps organizations use history to build bridges within itself and its broader constituents.