From: Diana Bolander <museumdirector@platteville.org> Subject: RE: Offensive names Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:56:25 +0000 Message-ID: <CY4PR06MB2840D498D9B980CC944426B7CAC80@CY4PR06MB2840.namprd06.prod.outlook.com>
Bill,
We recently did an exhibit on African American Lead Miners and one of the miners, James Williams, had a diggings that was called the "Nigger Jim Mine" on government documents as late as the 1960s. We felt that it was important not to censor this and instead to draw attention to it as an opportunity to talk about discrimination and the Jim Crow era. We had two advisors from different universities look over the exhibit text to make sure it was appropriate.
Private message me if you have any questions or would like to see the text we ended up using. The Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Michigan might be a good resource as well. https://ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/
Diana
Diana Bolander
Museum Director
The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums | City of Platteville
405 E. Main St./PO Box 780 | Platteville, Wisconsin
(608) 348-3301
museumdirector@platteville.org | mining.jamison.museum
-----Original Message-----
From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of William Schuette
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2018 6:12 PM
To: List Serve <localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu>
Subject: Offensive names
We have old settler's articles and newspaper stories on our Web site from the late 1800s and early 1900s, which contain a few derogatory names for African Americans and Native American females. How do other organizations treat such occurrences? Do we leave them as written with the understanding that the usage was based on the time period, perhaps with a caveat at the beginning of the article explaining why they were retained? Or do we delete these references and put a bracket [ ] with an explanation as to why the words have been excised?
Bill
Sauk County Historical Society