Hope in the Past
Historical Sites of hope are etched on our landscape--in buildings (think old churches or hospitals or schools or government buildings), parks and outdoor settings, locations of direct action and protest, in places where people gather to celebrate. These sites offer reminders of how people in the past worked together as they strove for greater inclusion and opportunities for all, for better lives for themselves and others, and worked for social, political, and legal change when necessary. In the long arc of history, those changes are often fleeting, seemingly positive gains overshadowed by new challenges and lost to memory. They may be difficult to see now, but they leave reminders on the landscape: sometimes in the form of repurposed or demolished buildings; in the archives; in voting and legislative records, in monuments and memorials, trees and gardens and natural landscapes. This map identifies locations tied to past efforts of hopeful action for change.