Buried in the unremissive ground: reading Richmond's subterranean signs

Like the forgotten memories of seminal events that purportedly lurk in the mind's subconscious, the buried substrata of a city can contain unresolved pasts, forgotten incidents that have shaped the present. And like memories, these buried artifacts can be painful once unearthed. Using Richmond, Virginia as a case, this article explores how the public reaction to a city's buried past serves as a map to the social worth of its citizens. Modern reactions to what is underground signal the relative status of modern groups; the treatment of the dead can be read as a code for modern race and class relations.