From KKK halls to slave auction sites, communities rethink historic sites

A former Ku Klux Klan hall in Texas is becoming an arts center — one of several racist landmarks across the U.S. that communities are trying to turn from symbols of terror into sites of reparation.Why it matters: Years after the backlash against Confederate monuments, new fights have emerged over what to do with remaining physical reminders of particularly hurtful racism — tear them down, preserve them, reinterpret them or return them to communities harmed by them.Zoom in: In Fort Worth, Texas, advocates are turning the former KKK Klavern No. 101 auditorium into an arts and community center named after a Black lynching victim. The building once stood as a threat to Black Americans, Latinos and Catholic and Jewish immigrants.The new center is designed as a reparative justice project — a place for performances, history, organizing and community healing. Supporters see it as an alternative to the usual choices of demolition or preservation.Zoom out: Similar moves are unfolding across the country.In Laurens, S.C., a former segregated theater that later housed a KKK museum was remade as the Echo Project, an antihate education center.In Fredericksburg, Va., officials moved a slave auction block from a downtown street corner to a museum. They're planning a memorial at the original site.In New Orleans, a former segregated school has become the Tate Etienne & Prevost Center, with civil rights exhibits, antiracism groups and affordable senior housing.In Drew, Miss., the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is transforming the barn where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955. They're turning it into a memorial and place for reflection.State of play: The changes are happening at a time when the U.S. is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever — and as the Trump administration pushes federal sites and national parks toward a more "uplifting" version of American history.A 2025 executive order by President Trump directed federal cultural institutions and Interior Department sites to remove or revise what it cast as divisive or anti-American content— often interpreted as references to the nation's era of slavery.A federal judge ordered the administration to restore national park materials removed under the directive, but an appeals court later allowed the removals to continue while the legal fight plays out.Context: The clash has put local history projects in sharper relief — as federal interpretation of U.S. history narrows, cities, nonprofits and descendants are countering that by trying to preserve fuller stories on the ground.Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, tells Axios the barn acquisition forced his community to confront a site many people would rather avoid — and to replace decades of silence with restorative justice."We have to sit with the worst of our humanity," Weems said. "We're not going to let this be erased. We're not going to let the murderers who wanted this to be erased (and) get away