Ansonborough: Historic Preservation in Charleston, Post-World War II

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Klein, Matthew
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Historic preservation efforts in post-World War II Charleston, SC, as directed primarily by the Historic Charleston Foundation, were often dominated by rhetoric in the local press that focused primarily on the notion of reclamation of the city’s antebellum heritage. Using Lost Cause imagery such as the battle over states’ rights and the Redemption of 1876, local newspapers attempted to justify the removal of the poor minority population on Charleston’s lower peninsula by arguing for this return to Charleston’s social, political, and cultural domination by elite whites. In practice, the Historic Charleston Foundation employed racism and white supremacy disguised as the desire for rehabilitating and beautifying the city, to justify the removal of poor minorities, effectively defining what it meant to be a citizen of Charleston during the Civil Rights era.
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