Preservationists want to retain the building. Critics want to tear it down, saying that it symbolizes the racial inequities at heart of American history. They’re both right.
Montgomery County is moving forward with a plan to demolish a long vacant prison in Norristown. It is pictured here in August when preservationists placed a "Save Me" sign on the front door.in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s the site of several notorious prisons where Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and many other opponents of white rule were incarcerated.
The prisons are still there, but nobody is jailed in them. They’re museums now, where people can learn about the history of apartheid and the brave freedom fighters who resisted it., which closed in 1986. Preservationists want to retain the 1851 building, which they regard as an architectural gem at the center of the town’s identity. And critics want to tear it down, arguing that it symbolizes the racial inequities at heart of American history.
They’re both right. And that’s why the prison should become a Museum of Justice. We can and should preserve the imposing Gothic Revival building, but we should repurpose it for peace and understanding..” It’s hard to argue with them. Its castle-like structure — complete with turrets, spires and slits — was the brainchild of architect Napoleon LeBrun, a Philadelphia native who also designed the Cathedral-Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul and the Philadelphia Academy of Music.
Mandela reminded his listeners that they were surrounded by apartheid-era jails, which he and his generation regarded as symbols of oppression. “Today these remains are being turned into places of commemoration,”We should follow Mandela’s lead. Tearing down the Norristown prison won’t erase our history of injustice. We need to preserve the building, to serve the best and highest purpose of all: remembering the past. That’s the only way we can make a better future.
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools,” which was published last year in a revised 20th-anniversary edition by University of Chicago Press.
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