Unearthing Site: Locational Dissonance and the Latent Possibilities of Wilmington's 1898 Memorial

Abstract: The 1898 Memorial in Wilmington, North Carolina commemorates a white supremacist coup and massacre of Black citizens, one of the most tragic chapters of the city's history. In the decades that followed, this episode of racial terror was obscured from the historical narrative until the 1990s when commemorative efforts began in earnest. This article explores the palimpsestic site specificity of the 1898 Memorial, arguing that despite its locational dissonance, the monument is a project of transformative latent possibilities with the capacity to stimulate new dialogues, strengthen community connections and encompass a multifaceted network of histories and temporal moments.