The Ugly Truth of America’s Most Famous Monument

The shine to democracy and its roots in white supremacy

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota (photo by Andrew Ling on Unsplash)

Mount Rushmore is inherently unique among American monuments in that a lot of the experience of the monument is in getting there.

Reaching the Black Hills of South Dakota — “island in the plains” — entails a drawn-out drum roll from the endless, colorless, flat…