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I believe that these soldiers were professionals, and I think that has to be considered in all of this.įRAN MILDY: I've always taken for granted it would be here. JOHN AHMED: Well, I'm ambivalent about it. Lee and the other Confederate figures whose statues literally overlook the city after the break.ĬARL POLLEN: They're beautiful.
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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: To me, it's like going to a museum with a knife and slashing paintings from the great masters because you have something against that great master or you don't like what he was trying to say in that painting.ĭEMBY: Plus a person who is playing a key role in laying out the options over what to do about Robert E. And today we're going to hear from some Richmonders on both sides of the debate over just what to do with these statues - the publisher of a local black newspaper that's been calling for the city's statues to go for 25 years and a spokesman for the Virginia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
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Gene and I drove down to Richmond along with Code Switch producers Walter Ray Watson and Aleli May Vuelta. KAT CHOW, BYLINE: I'm Kat Chow filling in for Shereen this week.
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This week on CODE SWITCH - how a city at the center of the Confederacy walks the line between remembering and memorializing. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Blow that piece of shit up.ĭEMBY. We knew from watching the conversation around Confederate monuments that sooner or later, this debate was going to land on the step of Richmond, Va., the former capital of the Confederate States of America. We are standing in the middle of a traffic circle in front of the gigantic - the absolutely enormous statue of Robert E. And these fights over these Confederate monuments are really part of an ongoing litigation about the American Civil War and slavery. What ended up happening was they probably ensured that even more Confederate statues across the country will be taken down even more quickly. Lee, the Confederate general, from being taken down. So there's an irony here, right? The white supremacists who went to Charlottesville said they were defending the city statue of Robert E. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: The mayor of Lexington, Ky., is moving quickly to relocate two Confederate monuments from outside a historic former courthouse.ĭEMBY: After the violence in Charlottesville, cities across the country had been wrestling with what to do with their Confederate monuments. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: In light of what happened, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says he is considering petitions calling for the city to rename streets bearing names of the Confederacy. for the removal of Confederate monuments that many view as symbols of oppression.īURNETT: Baltimore City Council voted unanimously to remove all four monuments that showcase Confederate history. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: The unrest is renewing calls across the U.S. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: A nationwide tug of war over these Confederate monuments.
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The following podcast contains language that some folks may find offensive.ĪVA-JOYE BURNETT: The weekend violence in Charlottesville resurrected a movement.
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