Cemetery Citizens Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds

Across the United States, groups of grassroots volunteers gather in overgrown, systemically neglected cemeteries. As they rake, clean headstones, and research silenced histories, they offer care to individuals who were denied basic rights and forms of belonging in life and in death. Cemetery Citizen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rosenblatt, Adam
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Redwood City Stanford University Press 2024
Edition:1
Subjects:
African American history
Burial grounds
Cemeteries
Cemeteries-Conservation and restoration-United States
Cemeteries-Social aspects-United States
Cultural heritage
Descendant communities
Poetic inquiry
Preservation
Public history
Public space
Racial justice
SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Geography
Social justice
Social justice-United States
SOCIAL SCIENCE
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General
Volunteer workers in cemeteries-United States
Racial justice
African American history
Public space
Descendant communities
Preservation
Public history
Cultural heritage
Poetic inquiry
Burial grounds
ISBN:9781503639126, 1503639126, 1503639118, 9781503639119
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Across the United States, groups of grassroots volunteers gather in overgrown, systemically neglected cemeteries. As they rake, clean headstones, and research silenced histories, they offer care to individuals who were denied basic rights and forms of belonging in life and in death. Cemetery Citizens is the first book-length study of this emerging form of social justice work. It focuses on how racial disparities shape the fates of the dead, and asks what kinds of repair are still possible. Drawing on interviews, activist anthropology, poems, and drawings, Adam Rosenblatt takes us to gravesite reclamation efforts in three prominent American cities. Cemetery Citizens dives into the ethical quandaries and practical complexities of cemetery reclamation, showing how volunteers build community across social boundaries, craft new ideas about citizenship and ancestry, and expose injustices that would otherwise be suppressed. Ultimately, Rosenblatt argues that an ethic of reclamation must honor the presence of the dead—treating them as fellow cemetery citizens who share our histories, landscapes, and need for care.
ISBN:9781503639126
1503639126
1503639118
9781503639119
DOI:10.1515/9781503639126