Tsione Wolde-Michael: Reckoning with Remembrance

Landecker Fellow Tsione Wolde-Michael co-wrote an op-ed entitled “Excluding Black Americans from our history has proved deadly” in The Washington Post. Across the article, Tsione Wolde-Michael, Dave Tell and Nancy Bercaw focus on the importance of Black history as a tool for justice.

The piece begins with the commemoration of Emmett Till, a young Black American boy murdered in Mississippi after whistling at a White woman. Over the years, Till historical markers have been defaced repeatedly by bullets, acid, and have been thrown in the river – demonstrating yet again the ways that Black history is violently contested.

In the article, the authors dig into the exhibition Reckoning with Remembrance, elaborating on the way individuals attempt to remember what others violently suppress. Using a range of historical references, the authors demonstrate that in the end, “We all bear responsibility for what our nation remembers and forgets.”

You can read the article on this Washington post webpage.

To learn more about the Reckoning with Remembrance exhibition, watch this NBC news coverage or visit the official exhibit website.

Tsione is one of thirty 2020-2021 Landecker Democracy Fellows. This fellowship, a collaboration between the Alfred Landecker Foundation and Humanity in Action, was created to strengthen a new generation of leaders whose approaches to political and social challenges can become catalysts for democratic placemaking and community building. Read more about the fellowship here.