Antiracist Education through Digital History: A Virtual Roundtable

The public health crisis caused by COVID-19 and the nationwide uprisings regarding racial and social justice have challenged public history professionals. Practitioners have had to expand their use of technology without training while urgently considering how to effectively create antiracism within their practice.

The long struggle for racial equality is deeply embedded in Charleston’s past and present as a major destination of heritage tourism, and this struggle is increasingly being acknowledged in the city’s sites of public history. Public historians can push this effort even further by learning antiracist education tools from other practitioners who have been engaged in this field. The range of accessible strategies for antiracist digital programming that we will discuss can be implemented in various public history programs in Charleston and the Lowcountry region.

By sharing their experiences, we intend to provide a map of best practices for antiracist education in local public history using digital tools and platforms. Our panel includes experts in local public history, archives, museums, and digital history: Mary Battle, Rachel Donaldson, Elisa J. Jones, Aaisha Haykal, Marina Lopez, and Leah Worthington.