This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, June 15th.

I'm Bridget Bergen, City Hall and Politics Reporter, filling in for Brian today. The death of George Floyd has reignited a fierce

debate over whether monuments to the Confederacy should be allowed to stand here in New York City

and around the country, too. The movement has even resonated internationally, where countries like

Britain are toppling monuments to slave traders. And joining me now to discuss this local, national,

and global issue are Leisha Brooks,

outreach director at the Southern Poverty Law Center,

and Germinder Bambra, Professor of Post-Colonial Studies

at the University of Sussex.

Welcome to WNYC, Leisha, and Professor Bomberra. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you.

Leisha, usually when we think of places named after General Robert E. Lee, the commander of the

Confederate States Army, we think of that history belonging in the South. But there's an avenue in

Brooklyn named after him that Mayor

de Blasio and other local lawmakers are trying to rename. New York was strongly abolitionist

during the Civil War. Why would there be anything named after Robert E. Lee here?

Great question. The Southern Poverty Law Center's research really shows that these symbols to the Confederacy

and Confederate iconography are really littered all across the United States.

Despite winning the Civil War, the North, the symbols were erected across the country as a way to appease the Union

soldiers. It was also meant to be a step towards reconciliation between the North and the South,

and that's why you find these monuments across the country.

In 2017, after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia turned deadly,

many places around the country took down plaques in statues that represented the Confederacy,

...