Chicago Monument Project: Communities Marking Public Space with Racialized Histories

Abstract (English)

“[H]ow may the contemporary moment’s stress about monuments be used as an opportunity to bring consciousness to undervalued histories, in this case African American histories that have not been noted or confirmed on the landscape of the city in any way, much less monumentalized. How might such non-monumental histories be recognized—and in decidedly non-monumental ways?” -Romi Crawford, 2021

After activists tried to topple it's grand, centrally located Columbus monument and it was removed, how is the City of Chicago, the 3rd most populous city in the United States, working to memorialize its history more equitably and accurately? Chicago’s population is split about evenly in thirds-- White, Black, and Latine. Yet in 2021, 97% of monumental sculptural portraits in city parks were of men and promoted “a predominantly white, male, Eurocentrist narrative” (CMP 2022). “Monuments create an affirmative notion of public space that claims to have meaning and produces identity. Their presence suggests permanence, durable memory, continuity. Their traditional styles and materials—traditional for Europe and Euro-America—seem to connect the United States to an even longer history, that of the statues of classical antiquity, Greece and Rome” (Zorach 2024: 5).

This paper examines the work of the Chicago Monuments Project since 2022, first providing an overview of the project’s guiding principles and process. Newly commissioned monument projects will be analyzed, with a focus on histories addressed, communities funded and represented, and community-based forms of monumentalization (including temporary monuments). Of the eight new monument commissions, one addresses historic and notable Native Americans of early Chicago before they were forced to cede their lands and relocate; three memorialize those subject to largely anti-Black violence (#SayHerName: The Rekia Boyd Monument Project; The Chicago Race Riots of 1919 Commemoration Project, and The Chicago Torture Justice Memorial); and one is the planning phase for how to represent the city’s untold Latina histories in a monument(s). This paper examines how specific projects incorporate decolonial and participatory methodologies of heritage; address shared care, responsibility and communal stewardship; and use circular timelines that incorporate past, present, and future, generating understandings of heritage as dynamic and future-oriented rather than solely rooted in the past. Challenges in implementing the project and community visions of heritage are addressed.