Monday, August 31, 2020, 11:30 AM – 1 PM EDT

Marilynne McKay, Professor Emerita of Dermatology, Emory University School of Medicine

“MONUMENTAL DECISIONS: The Origins and Messages of Confederate Memorials”

The Civil War lasted only four years long ago (1861-1865), but it casts a huge shadow. In 2019 the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 780 Confederate monuments and statues at county courthouses, town squares, state capitols and other public venues (not including cemeteries or battlefields). The majority (604) were dedicated before 1950, but twenty-eight went up between 1950 and 1970. (Georgia’s Stone Mountain Memorial was dedicated in 1973.)  Thirty-four Confederate statues were dedicated after 2000. In the past two years, however, almost 200 monuments have been removed, relocated, or toppled. President Trump says it’s “sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart,” but others argue against memorialization of revisionist histories and a culture of white supremacy. A movement to get rid of public works honoring “traitors and racists” is starting to address what we might begin to build instead. Join us to discuss some old and new Southern monuments in terms of their origins and likely dispositions.