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Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller
Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

So the statues are down. Now what?

The statues on the Confederate monument are covered in graffiti, beheaded.
The statues on the Confederate monument are covered in graffiti and beheaded after a protest in Portsmouth, Va., Wednesday, June 10, 2020. Protesters beheaded and then pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument. The crowd was frustrated by the Portsmouth City Council's decision to put off moving the monument.
Kristen Zeis | The Virginian-Pilot via AP

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Protesters have targeted statues and other monuments associated with white supremacy and injustice following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In early June, a statue of Christopher Columbus that stood in front of the Minnesota State Capitol for almost 90 years was toppled by Native Americans, who said they had been working for years to remove the statue peacefully, to little avail. Columbus statues in Boston and Richmond, Va., were likewise vandalized and torn down.

Soon, Confederate statues and symbols were on the chopping block. Four statues along Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue have been removed, including one of Confederate President Jefferson Davis that was vividly graffitied before the city agreed to put it in storage.

But what now? Thursday on MPR News with Kerri Miller, we talked about what happens next. What does history teach us about how statues are viewed? Should we try to replace them? And if so, with what?

Guests:

  • Erin L. Thompson is an art historian and lawyer and a professor in the Department of Art and Music at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. 

  • Julian Hayter is a historian and professor at the University of Richmond.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts , Spotify or RSS.