RE: Offensive names

New Message Reply Date view Thread view Subject view Author view
Diana Bolander (museumdirector@platteville.org)
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:56:25 +0000



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



New Message Reply Date view Thread view Subject view Author view
This archive was generated on Mon Feb 19 2018 - 11:23:00 Central Standard Time