How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

by Clint Smith

when you challenge people, specifically white people’s conception of Jefferson, you’re in fact challenging their conception of themselves. “I’ve come to realize that there’s a difference between history and nostalgia, and somewhere between those two is memory,” he said. “I think that history is the story of the past, using all the available facts, and that nostalgia is a fantasy about the past using no facts, and somewhere in between is memory, which is kind of this blend of history and a little bit of emotion …I mean, history is kind of about what you need to know …but nostalgia is what you want to hear.”