CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS AND THE LOST CAUSE (mini episode)

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since the tragedies of the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville and the Charleston Church shooting that killed nine black members, the display of monuments and flags representing the fallen Confederacy have been hotly debated. Are they racist symbols of hate or are they symbols of an unshakable Southern pride? Arguing that the American Civil War was fought over states' rights instead of the preservation of slavery, this alternative narrative called The Lost Cause is still taught in the majority of high school classes today. On this episode, we will explore the true reasons for the Civil War in the words of confederate leaders as well as the words of Union president Abraham Lincoln, words which demonstrate that this heroes-versus-villains story isn’t as simple as it seems. We will also trace these monuments and symbols back to the movements for Civil Rights, when most of them were actually constructed, during the second rise of the KKK in the 1920s and the battles over segregation in the 1950s and 60s. We’ll ask the question, does the veneration of the Confederacy really represent Southern pride, or does it degrade it? And more importantly, is the story we tell worth the cost? American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Produced and edited by Clear Commo Studios Co-written by Riley Smith Co-produced by Miranda Zickler Become a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly! Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is American hysteria's aftershock, where I share with you a story that didn't make it into the main episode.
0:12.6	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith.
0:14.6	And today, we're talking about the lost cause.
0:20.1	It's just such a personal symbol, like here in the South, and it means so much to so many people.
0:25.4	Like, it's just about pride and where you come from and being proud to show who you are.
0:30.7	Well, I get, I get it. It's heritage. I have heritage to the Civil War. Like I said, with General, with Major Neresay.
0:36.1	But here's the thing. It's time to let it go.
0:40.9	In April 2017, extremist members of the alt-right and various white nationalists and neo-Nazi
0:48.7	organizations came together in Charlottesville, Virginia, to march and the Unite the Right rally,
0:55.4	resulting in the death of Heather Heyer when an internet troll turned Nazi plowed his car through a street of counter-protesters.
1:04.6	Flying alongside the Iron Cross and swastikas were a slew of Confederate battle flags.
1:12.0	Supporters of the rally stated that the primary reason for organizing was to protest the
1:17.8	removal of a statue in Lee Park, a statue of the park's namesake, Confederate General Robert
1:24.8	E. Lee. As quickly as people began to protest on both sides, a national
1:30.9	dialogue emerged surrounding Confederate iconography in the American South and also in the American
1:37.3	North, and how their presence seems to promote the white supremacist values of the now defunct rebellion
1:44.1	they represented.
1:46.0	Flags and monuments of Confederate leaders seem to have been a fixture in America since the war
1:52.3	itself. But are these truly historical monuments, ones that deserve to stand in public
1:59.1	rather than in a museum as proponents often state.
2:03.1	As it turns out, these monuments sprung up not in the short aftermath of the Civil War,
2:09.0	but in waves that mirror the time periods of movements toward and against Black Civil Rights.
	...

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