Remembering Rondo: Black counter-memory and collective practices of place-making in Saint Paul’s historic black neighborhood

Abstract

This paper draws on oral histories of Black elders in the historic neighborhood of Rondo in Saint Paul and traces the practices of memorialization which the paper calls Black counter memory in the neighborhood. The paper highlights the various ways in which community members of Rondo remember the neighborhood as a Black collective place through practices of memorialization and acts of performance. Through visual documentation and oral histories the paper demonstrates the various spatial practices of resistance in Rondo through Black counter memory in larger context of the Twin Cities.