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 with that."

Friction point: Saving sites associated with some of the nation's worst episodes of racism can feel like boosting white supremacy. Destroying them can erase evidence of what happened.

• Stone Mountain, Ga., remains an especially difficult case: It's both a public park and home to the nation's largest Confederate carving, one that includes Confederacy President Jefferson David, and Gens. Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson.
• State law protects the carving, while park officials and advocates have pushed for new exhibits on slavery, segregation and the mountain's KKK ties.
• Confederate heritage groups have sued over efforts to add that context.

What they're saying: "We cannot erase history. We should not delete history, because we need to learn from it," Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime, executive director of Transform 1012 N. Main Street, the organization in charge with reimagining the Texas former KKK building, tells Axios.

• Gonzalez-Jaime said Transform 1012's first step was listening to communities targeted by white supremacy as well as those who wanted the former Klan hall torn down.
• "How can we use this space that was used to teach hate into a place to teach understanding, to teach love, to teach healing?" Gonzalez-Jaime said.

Between the lines: Rather than simply preserving or tearing down racist landmarks, communities have an opportunity to create new civic symbols, social justice strategist Rashad Robinson told Axios.

• Robinson, author of "From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter — and Win," said movements should invest in places that reflect their values rather than allowing the past to define them.