On November 20, 1970, James Lewis Cates Jr. was killed by a white supremacist motorcycle gang outside the Student Union. Cates was a community member living in the historically Black Northside neighborhood who had come to attend a dance on campus. After the dance, a brawl ensued, and Cates was stabbed. No ambulance was called to administer care to Cates, and he succumbed to his injuries and died that night. His blood was mopped up by UNC staff and gone the next morning. His killers faced no consequences.
Cates’ death that night cannot be chalked up to unjust laws, a crooked criminal justice system, or some other systemic cause. His death happened because of several malicious and intentionally negligent choices made by individual members of his community who were not morally invested in keeping him alive. Namely, the white supremacists who killed him, the police officers who chose not to administer life-saving care or call an ambulance, and those involved in the legal process who let his killers go unpunished.
On November 20, 2025, a memorial in remembrance of Cates was hosted by the UNC NAACP in the Pit. Several speakers offered words of inspiration, motivation, and comfort. It’s telling that not one of these speakers made mention of political activism or legal reform. After all, what happened to Cates was completely illegal, and yet, justice was never achieved. Instead, a recurring theme throughout the night was the importance of “community memory.” Speakers emphasized the need for collective awareness, within the community, of historical atrocities that had happened, so that those atrocities are prevented from occurring again in the future.
The importance of community memory can be understood through the “Make America Great Again” slogan, the most notable weaponization of political nostalgia in contemporary politics. The slogan’s intention is to encourage voters to rally behind the belief that some version of the United States from an unspecified previous time was more virtuous and esteemed than the United States today. But of course, when you study American history, you see that there doesn’t exist a time in the past when America was a particularly “great” place to live for minorities and women, among others. Nevertheless, MAGA proved to be an attractive and impactful campaign slogan.
The MAGA slogan is an example of the appeal of political nostalgia. The slogan takes advantage of the fact that it is impossible for the human memory to retain its understanding of the nuances of the past to sell the idea of the modern United States as a fallen version of a once-greater nation. It then motivates those who buy into America’s past greatness to want to recreate that greatness again, even though that perceived greatness is fantastical.
The central harm of political nostalgia lies in the fact that it is inherently anti-historical. Political nostalgia is used to spread inaccurate and sanitized ideas about what the past was like to advance political agendas. This approach to politics undermines integrity and pushes for solutions that avoid addressing real root causes.
The antidote to political nostalgia is community memory. When a community has a strong collective memory and has invested in preserving history, it becomes much harder for politicians and others to spread lies about the past for political gain. It forces communities to constantly grow so that inequality decreases over time, rather than being recreated due to negligence.
Building strong community memory is not an easy goal. It requires investment in historical preservation, relationship-building across powerful divides, and consistent attention. But it is also one of the most important tools for fighting back against inequality. Communities without a strong collective memory are prone to recreating past inequalities, while those with strong memory are equipped with the tools and wisdom to avoid making the same mistakes again. For any project aimed at achieving justice, legal reform alone will never be enough. Conscience-building and investments in memory are necessary components of a successful movement towards a more just future.
