The Politics of Heritage in the US Virgin Islands: Reclaiming Afro-Caribbean Histories on Landscapes of Contestation in St. Croix

• In Event: The Racial Politics of Public Memorials and Grassroots Remembrance

Abstract

This presentation delves into the intricate politics of heritage on St. Croix, one of the three islands constituting the former Danish West Indies—alongside St. Thomas and St. John—now collectively known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. The recent designation of St. Croix as a National Heritage Area in December 2022 has ignited a fresh exploration of the politics of USVI heritage, both visible on the island's surface and submerged underground and underwater. This designation, specific to lived-in landscapes with significant U.S. national narratives, necessitates examining how specific histories become hypervisible across heritage sites on the island while others face marginalization. In St. Croix, public heritage sites stewarded by federal institutions tend to marginalize the resilient histories of Afro-Caribbean communities. They often emphasize historical narratives that valorize the era of Danish colonial rule (1743 through 1917) or perpetuate the romanticized narrative of the island as solely "America's Paradise." Both narratives overlook St. Croix's rich history of resilient Afro-Caribbean communities. Caught in the nexus of the afterlife of Danish colonial rule and a U.S. imperialist present, this presentation explores how "heritage" is operationalized on St. Croix by various actors, including federal, island officials, and community organizers, to make claims about the power of place.

Author

• Ayana Flewellen, Stanford University