Monumental Lies

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer last year sparked a wave of social justice protests, including ones targeting monuments that celebrate segregationists, slave-owners, conquistadors and Confederate leaders. Since then, about 160 monuments have come down, but roughly 2,000 remain standing.

We teamed up with Type Investigations to visit dozens of Confederate monuments and found that for devoted followers, they inspire a disturbing – and distorted – view of history: Confederate generals as heroes. Slaves who were happy to work for them. That twisted history is also shared with schoolchildren on class trips. And you won’t believe who’s funding these sites to keep them running.

Then, reporter Stan Alcorn follows the story of New Mexico’s great monument controversy. In 1998, the state was set to celebrate its cuarto centenario: the 400th anniversary of the state’s colonization by the Spanish. But a dramatic act of vandalism would turn the making of a monument in Albuquerque into a fight over history the city didn’t expect.

This show is an update from a 2020 episode that was based on reporting originally broadcast Dec. 8, 2018.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at White House
0:06.3	Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.
0:13.7	I know there's going to be a twist, won't they, a massive twist.
0:16.6	At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.
0:20.5	I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker.
0:26.1	Find it now in the In-the-Dark podcast feed.
0:31.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al Leedson.
0:37.6	June 19, 1865,
0:40.4	a Union General
0:41.5	arrives in Galveston, Texas.
0:44.0	He informs
0:45.0	what is believed to be the last
0:47.2	group of enslaved black people
0:49.2	some very overdue news.
0:52.2	They are now free.
0:59.6	The day came to be known as Juneteenth. As we celebrate the day this year, we want to look back at something that happened a year ago. Now, Juneteenth has been
1:05.3	celebrated in the U.S. for over 150 years. But organizers here in Richmond say that this year is much different.
1:14.4	People in Richmond, Virginia were meeting in the least likely of places. People gathered at the
1:20.8	Robert E. Lee monument to commemorate a moment in history. That's right. People gathered at a monument
1:27.2	of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
1:29.8	So tonight there will be a candlelight vigil at 7.30 this evening here at the Robert
1:34.0	E. Lee monument.
	...

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