Memorializing Injustice from Reform Schools with Dr. Kaniqua Robinson

In the post-Civil War South, segregated, state-run reform schools became a source of cheap farm labor through the convict-leasing act. Decades later, investigators have uncovered patterns of abuse and discrimination in the running of these schools, and perhaps more importantly, the lack of historical documentation of what went on there. Our guest today is one such investigator. From the anthropology department at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, she specializes in cultural and collective memory, especially where it intersects with race and criminal justice. She joins us to talk about the question, “How do we, as a society, pass down knowledge of and memorialize the past?”.