Plantation Nostalgia and Public Reckoning

The Chief Vann House State Historic Site, a grand plantation home and grounds once owned by a Cherokee family, was purchased and restored by the state of Georgia in the 1950s. The site won fame as a tourist attraction that celebrated the wealth and exploits of Cherokee men, while rendering invisible the experience and suffering of enslaved African Americans. The unveiling, in 2008, of a new exhibit on black history at this site opened possibilities in the quest for representational and racial justice.