This past Saturday I co-led a tour of Charlottesville’s Confederate monuments with Dr. Jalane Schmidt of UVA. We started at the slave auction marker on Courthouse Square before stopping at the Confederate soldier statue as well as the Lee and Jackson monuments. We had a nice crowd on-hand, including NBC29 News, which filmed the tour for a short segment.
Here are a few short videos from the tour.
@KevinLevin addresses the history of white supremacists using the battle flag of the Confederate States, which appears on the base of a statue outside the Albemarle County Courthouse. pic.twitter.com/pXR9gaOLwm
— Steve Johnson (@SteveJ0HNSON) September 25, 2018
@KevinLevin sharing a bit about the “Lost Cause” narrative that developed as an alternative to owning up to a heritage that included fighting a war to keep blacks enslaved. (This statue of Stonewall Jackson is located in Court Square Park in Charlottesville.) pic.twitter.com/szAi79YkPZ
— Steve Johnson (@SteveJ0HNSON) September 25, 2018
@Jalane_Schmidt explains the history behind the unveiling of the controversial Robert E. Lee Statue in Market Square Park, where dozens of anti-racists were injured by white supremacists in and around the Charlottesville park on August 12, 2017. pic.twitter.com/5IORw9vnPx
— Steve Johnson (@SteveJ0HNSON) September 25, 2018
@KevinLevin discusses Robert E. Lee, who never visited Charlottesville but whose image looms over Market Street Park nonetheless (1 of 2)… pic.twitter.com/tTHmjmb7fm
— Steve Johnson (@SteveJ0HNSON) September 25, 2018
@KevinLevin and @Jalane_Schmidt discuss the disgusting history of white supremacy in Charlottesville from the early 20th Century to last year. This is why anti-racists showed up a year ago, held space this year, and why we keep working against racism, prejudice, & anti-Semitism. pic.twitter.com/dRlW5UQJBK
— Steve Johnson (@SteveJ0HNSON) September 25, 2018
Next week I am heading back to Charlottesville to speak to the graduate students in the history department at UVA on social media and my black Confederates book.
Delighted to see this conversation taking place.