MLK Boulevard

This article examines, from a memory studies perspective, the complex interconnections between memory traces and race signification. Material forms of recollection, I contend, can inextricably be connected to racial identity individually and collectively. Once a public space is dedicated, it connects the visual-factual to the sensual-emotional: a landscape-identity nexus. Drawing from the Martin Luther King, Jr. street renaming debate in Muncie, Indiana, this article analyzes how sites of memory influence individual and social constructions of black commemoration. When the Whitely Neighborhood Association requested to rename Broadway Ave. after Martin Luther King, Jr., a city-wide debate sharply divided those in favor from those against the name change. In turning to the above mentioned case, my aim is to illuminate the means and processes by which memory comprises vigorous sites of commemoration and, at the same time, contentious settings of race negotiation, identification, and signification.