The Office of Historical Corrections

Content Warning: This story discusses both overt and covert racism, racist violence, gun violence, and murder, and uses a racial expletive. This study guide quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.

Cassie works for the Institute for Public History (IPH) in Washington, DC, a government organization dedicated to protecting historical records. A field agent, she spends most of her days correcting historical inaccuracies on plaques and monuments throughout the city, using official stickers with her agency’s seal.

One day, she enters a bakery to buy a cake for Daniel, a man she is “kind of” dating. She sees a sign on the counter advertising Juneteenth cakes, which wrongly claim that Juneteenth is the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The worker behind the counter is Black, but Cassie reflects that the owner is likely white, given her lack of understanding that very few people buy expensive cakes for Juneteenth. She informs the worker and the white woman next to her of the correction she is making to the sign. She prints an official sticker and affixes it to the sign, but both women are dismissive. Instead, they are concerned with whether she is buying a cake.

Cassie has a PhD in history and used to be a professor. However, she realized that universities had become increasingly less about teaching and more about enrollment numbers and metrics. She began working at IPH because it felt more meaningful and because she hated watching history “disappear” in her work as a professor.

The IPH was started by a congresswoman to combat “bad information.” She envisioned making the truth more appealing and accessible to everyone. Although the congresswoman left to become a TV pundit, Cassie continues to work with 39 others in DC and throughout the country. They face constant scrutiny from the public and political organizations. They are often given nicknames like The Bureau of Whitewashing or The Office of Historical Corrections. People critique any mistakes they make in their corrections. One group in particular, the Free Americans, is a group of white supremacists that constantly stages anti-IPH protests, which often turn violent.

Back at the office, Cassie is called in to speak with her boss. He is dealing with complaints about corrections the IPH made, which are being challenged for accuracy. Many of them were made by Genevieve, who had left the IPH six months before. Genevieve is one of Cassie’s acquaintances from childhood when she went by Genie. As the only two Black children at their private school, they were forced together from a young age. Their parents often had dinner, and Genie’s parents would insult Cassie for having gone to public school and being “mouthy.”

Although the two went to separate colleges, they ended up attending the same graduate school to study history. Despite their differences in appearance, they were often confused by their classmates and professors because they were the only two Black people in the department. At that point, Genie and Cassie attempted friendship, but after the first year, their relationship fizzled out. Genie ended up getting married immediately after graduate school and becoming a history professor. Although Cassie saw Genie’s life on social media, they spent years without speaking to each other until Genie showed up to work at the IPH. She had shaved her head, divorced her husband, and now referred to herself as “Genevieve.”

At the IPH, Genevieve aggressively made corrections, believing that the IPH was “tiptoeing” around history. In particular, she sought to correct historical information that “lied” by “omitting” important points. In one instance, she stood in front of a Gauguin painting to inform tourists that he abused underage girls. In another, she changed hundreds of programs for a musical about George Washington at the Kennedy Center, listing his atrocities and assuring people that Washington was not Black. Cassie addressed the latter correction by attending the show and apologizing.

Cassie struggles to reconcile Genie with Genevieve. Genie’s family had largely disassociated themselves from the Black, struggling people in DC, but Genevieve had become obsessed with pointing out victims of historical acts—especially Black victims. Although the IPH fired Genevieve, Cassie felt that she was largely right in her corrections. She realizes that while Genie became Genevieve, perhaps Cassie had become Cassandra, the type of person who would apologize for Genevieve’s actions rather than defend them—despite believing they were not wrong.

Cassie is sent to Cherry Mill, Wisconsin, to check into a possible mistake with one of Genevieve’s corrections. In the 1930s, a Black man named Josiah purchased a building in Cherry Mill to start a tannery. After the white population tried to force him to leave, they set his business on fire, and he was allegedly trapped inside and killed. In the 1990s, a plaque was put up commemorating the man’s death. Genevieve found a photo of the people who committed the murder and replaced the plaque with a new one, listing the names of the people responsible for his death. Now there is evidence that suggests Josiah did not die in the fire, and it is Cassie’s responsibility to uncover the facts about the incident. She is hesitant to go to Milwaukee, citing her “distrust” of the region and their dislike of outsiders. She also dislikes the fact that she was chosen by the IPH simply because she is Black, and it will look better to have one Black woman disprove another. She also feels a desire “to get something right when Genevieve was wrong” (194).

When she gets home, she has an argument with Daniel over work. He is concerned about her going to Milwaukee—where her ex-boyfriend, Nick, lives—and she spends the night focusing on studying her file instead of planning anything for his birthday. He angrily leaves, and she contemplates how she could salvage the relationship if she wanted to but feels no obligation to do so. As she studies the file, she keeps asking why Josiah would go to Wisconsin in the first place. The place was extremely hostile toward Black people, and he ignored several demands that he leave town once he set up his shop.

Nick and Cassie met in college and dated for two years. Cassie felt uncomfortable with the fact that—as a white man—he was given respect and positive attention by default; conversely, she felt as though she always needed to prove that she was worthy to people. However, she learned to enjoy the respect she got because of being with him, causing her to become “cockier” and “more reckless” with Nick. She thinks of how Daniel would’ve hated that about her.

Nick meets Cassie at the airport in Milwaukee and takes her to Cherry Mill the next day. She is happy that he will be there to help with conversations and make her seem less intrusive than she would alone. Genevieve is also in town, and Cassie runs into her at a coffee shop. Genevieve explains that she is trying to find the truth about Josiah’s death. She hopes to have a show—History Exposed with Genevieve Johnson—and gain fame from this case.

Andy Detry walks into the café to meet with Cassie. He is the grandson of one of the men who claimed responsibility for the fire that killed Josiah. He was hoping to send an apology to Josiah’s descendants for what happened, which is when he discovered that Josiah possibly survived. He found some of Josiah’s living relatives from his marriage after he fled Cherry Mill, and he put Cassie in touch with them. While Cassie and Genevieve argue over whether Genevieve can go with her to speak with Josiah’s relatives, they hear commotion on the street. A crowd has gathered to look at the sign that Genevieve put up. Someone marked a giant red X over the sign, wrote the words “WE WILL ERASE YOU” on the wall next to it, and signed it with “White Justice” and the symbol for the Free Americans (223-24). Susan, who works in the café, informs Cassie that it was likely Chase—her nephew and the grandson of Ella Mae, the sole woman in the group that burned down Josiah’s business. He was angry and started protests during Genevieve’s initial work.

Cassie goes to visit the Robinsons, Josiah’s relatives. Ms. Adelaide is Josiah’s daughter, and she shows Cassie photos of Josiah from later in his life. These convince Cassie that he did not die in the fire. Curious, she asks why Josiah ever came to Wisconsin. Ms. Adelaide tells her that he went looking for his sister, Minerva. When she was 16, Minerva took her family’s savings and left for Chicago, where she worked in a flower shop arranging flowers for funerals. Josiah found her initially, but she left during the Depression. Wisconsin was her last known address from years before. Ms. Adelaide has also been receiving letters from “White Justice” for months. He has been accusing them of “defiling” his family name. As Cassie reads the letters, she is shocked by how neat and proper they are despite their vitriol.

Cassie leaves the Robinson home feeling that her job is “both done and forever undoable” (239). She feels that she will be able to fix the record’s historical accuracy, but it will do little to fix the harm that the actual history has caused. She calls Daniel and tells him what she has found while ignoring Genevieve’s messages. She tells Daniel that she still has an unanswered question: Who wrote Josiah’s obituary in the Black paper in Wisconsin when his entire family knew he was still alive? Cassie speculates that it might have been Josiah himself, while Daniel guesses it was his sister, Minerva, whom he presumes passed as white in her new life.

That night, Cassie goes to dinner with Nick and continues to ruminate over who posted Josiah’s obituary and where Minerva went. They return to Nick’s apartment and have sex.

Cassie wakes from a nightmare with a realization. She looks at the photo of the group that burned down Josiah’s business, at the lone woman—Ella Mae Schmidt—and then at the photo of Minerva. She realizes that they are the same woman. She calls Genevieve and decides that the information is out of her scope and would be more relevant for Genevieve. The two agree to meet at a diner. On the drive there, Cassie thinks of Minerva’s transformation. She went from laughing with her brother in the first photo as Minerva to smiling as she looked at the building she burned down to kill him. She also thinks of Chase, who is a white supremacist but Minerva’s great-grandson and therefore has Black ancestors.

Cassie and Genevieve decide to talk to Susan’s mother, Abigail Varner, who would be Ella Mae/Minerva’s daughter. Mrs. Varner tells them that her parents met in Chicago when her father went into a flower shop and saw her mother working there. Cassie tells Mrs. Varner her theory about Ella Mae and Minerva being the same person, but she refuses to acknowledge whether it is true. She is adamant that if her mother is Minerva, then she must have warned Josiah about the fire to allow him to escape.

Cassie and Genevieve leave disappointed. They go to Andy Detry’s bar and tell him that Josiah did survive the fire. They have drinks and discuss the conversation with Mrs. Varner. They are unsure if Minerva saved Josiah’s life by warning him or allowed him to die to hide her own Blackness. Regardless, Cassie comments that “the cost of raising her daughter the way she wanted is that she’s got a Black white supremacist grandson running around, so in the end [they] all lose” (258).

Genevieve’s agent informs her that their theory is not enough for a story, so Genevieve decides to speak to Chase and tell him the truth about his ancestry. Cassie is unsure and questions her job, wondering why she bothers to show people the truth if denial allows them to believe whatever they want anyway. Genevieve expresses her sadness at Cassie questioning her job now after failing to defend Genevieve. Cassie feels insulted but does not disagree. She goes to her hotel room and watches videos from the Free Americans, attempting to become “immune” to their influence. She falls asleep and awakens just before dark with an urge to stop Genevieve from going to see Chase.

As Cassie drives to Genevieve’s hotel, she gets several text messages, one of which is a link to a video from Nick. She opens it to see White Justice’s live stream of Genevieve standing next to the plaque commemorating Josiah’s death. She can see a gun in White Justice’s hand, who claims that Genevieve is telling lies about his family. He forces her to read the new correction that she has put up on the plaque. Genevieve remains stoic and reads her correction. It says that Josiah escaped the fire with his life and that those who committed the crime were never prosecuted. It explains how Ella Mae was believed to be Josiah’s sister and that her descendants never knew the truth about their ancestry.

White Justice demands that she say it again, cocking the gun and pointing it at her. Genevieve refuses, and Cassie forces herself to close her eyes. She hears a gunshot in the distance and keeps her eyes closed, imagining that it is just the sound of the storm.