Walking with the Enslaved: The Effects of Memorializing Racial Injustice in the Contemporary United States

How does knowledge of past atrocities shape support for contemporary redress policies? Relatedly, how do public memory projects shape political attitudes and support for transitional justice mechanisms? While lacking specific knowledge of past atrocities can be associated with denial of ongoing inequalities, recent research on the effects of memorializing past atrocities has shown that these efforts can increase support for democratic institutions and decrease support for previous repressive regimes. Cole and Bates build on this stream of research by exploring the effects of memorialization efforts across a long time horizon: the atrocities committed in the United States as part of the transatlantic slave trade and subsequent institutionalization of chattel slavery that have reverberated throughout American history and continue to shape contemporary politics. They will conduct a field experiment using the 2.5-mile-long Slave Trail memorial in Richmond, Virginia, a former hub of the U.S. slave trade, to evaluate the effects of remembering the legacies of past atrocities on public opinion and support for domestic transitional justice policies. As communities in the U.S. begin to reckon with this history, it is important to understand how this reckoning might influence contemporary political attitudes and opinions about justice and reconciliation.