Review: Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond’s Historic Cemeteries, by Ryan K. Smith

Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond’s Historic Cemeteries engages audiences on the relevance of public history as studied through the preservation of white and Black burying grounds in a city that was once the capital of the Confederacy. Cemeteries and similar sacred spaces represent the visible, tangible evidence of the effects of systemic racism imprinted on the landscape and the once crushing weight of a preservation movement forged in white privilege. Virginia Commonwealth University Professor and author Ryan K. Smith, through his courses and with his students, embarked on a decade-long historical effort to produce a comprehensive study of Richmond’s cemeteries against the backdrop of the nation’s, the city’s, and even his institution’s evolving commitment to racial equity. The author offers both an innovative framework that facilitates a comparative, inter-site analysis of Richmond’s historic cemeteries and highlights the potential impact of public history on the “present moment” by...