[Update: This program is scheduled for the anniversary of the first Decoration Day at Andersonville in 1869. This event was a protest of Confederate Decoration Day and involved African American children decorating the graves of the prisoners (and the guards) before daylight on April 27--a massive "preemptive" decoration of ~13,200 graves.] I am saddened-but-not-shocked to see this program scheduled for the weekend of so-called Confederate Memorial Day at Andersonville National Historic Site. I'm reminded of the saying, "don't attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance." Andersonville NHS suffers from consistent staffing problems. They cannot seem to recruit or retain interpretive staff who are up to the task of managing the place where 13,000 U.S. soldiers perished--slowly, by inches--for want of adequate shelter, wholesome food, and clean water. This has been a problem for years. What's sad isn't that it's offensive, it's that the people putting it on might not know why it should be offensive. I can't imagine Manzanar National Historic Site inviting the public to learn how to march like the Army Military Police guarding the internment camp or a generic "World War II soldier." I'd be surprised if Sand Creek National Monument brought kids in to drill like Colorado militiamen. I doubt anyone would rebuild HMS Jersey, where Americans were imprisoned during the Revolutionary War, so that kids could learn about life as a British sailor. And here the U.S. government encourages children to dress up as guards at the deadliest Confederate prison. In recent decades, historic sites have been under great scrutiny to improve their educational programing. Many of these sites have risen to the challenge of telling difficult histories. The National Park Service could do a better job than they're currently doing here. This is a travesty.
Harry Cummins
4mo
Great points. Keep it up.
Director of Collections & Research at The Filson Historical Society
4moThanks for framing the issue in the big picture. This is the conversation we need to be having