Community development through reconciliation tourism: The behind the Big House Program in Holly Springs, Mississippi

Abstract

America’s history of racial segregation has played a critical role in shaping what is publicly acknowledged, remembered, and preserved, and what is silenced or forgotten. Such issues shift into community challenges of recognizing and addressing the history of slavery while working in the context of heritage tourism. My role as observant-participator provides me a unique lens through which to explore how members of the Holly Springs, Mississippi, community address these issues through the Behind the Big House education program. In this article, I examine issues confronted as this community attempts to define its past in the present and create a more racially inclusive future, through reconciliation tourism.