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The History Hour

The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4879 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In June 2015 an American anti-racist activist climbed a flagpole on the South Carolina state house grounds to take down the Confederate flag. The protest followed the killing of 9 black people at a historic Charleston church by a white supremacist who was pictured holding the flag. We discuss the history of this divisive symbol of America's racist past. Also how life in the Chinese countryside has been dramatically changed by 40 years of migration to the cities. Plus, from the 1980s, a British TV event that shifted attitudes towards victims of rape, East Germany’s iconic Trabant car and the man behind Mindfulness.

Photo Bree Newsome taking down the Confederate flag at the State House in Columbia, SC, on Saturday 27th June 2015. Credit Adam Anderson / Reuters.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,

0:04.8

the past brought to life by those who were there.

0:07.9

This week from the 1980s, a British TV event that shifted attitudes towards victims of rape.

0:13.7

There are people who try to tell you that a woman is at least partly responsible in every case of rape.

0:18.4

They also tell you that it doesn't happen to nice girls,

0:21.0

or women over the age of 40, and that it's always done by a complete

0:23.9

stranger. Also this week East Germany's iconic Travant car the man behind

0:29.8

mindfulness and China's changing countryside after 40 years of urban growth.

0:35.0

Because the rural to urban migration is on such a huge scale, It has caused some tensions and social problems.

0:46.0

That's all coming up and as ever I'm joined by the excellent team who bring you the

0:49.4

Witness History Strand on the World Service and we're going to begin by looking at an important

0:54.2

moment in the ongoing controversy in the United States surrounding statues and

0:59.0

emblems from the past. Fihanna, hi though, has been working on this and Fahana, what was your jumping off point for this story?

1:04.7

Hello Max, so I initially started looking into this story when I came across this striking image of an African-American woman at the top of a flagpole in the US

1:16.3

States of South Carolina and in the photo she's holding the Confederate flag this divisive

1:22.4

symbol of America's racist past, and she's coming down

1:26.2

the pole holding the flag.

1:28.7

And that woman was activist Bree Newsom Bath, and that photo was taken in June 2015 and she talked to me

1:37.2

about that act of protest which followed the horrific killing of nine black church

1:42.2

goers by a white supremacist.

1:45.0

The gunman had been sitting inside this historic African American church in Charleston

1:51.0

for an hour before standing up and opening fire.

...

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