Welcome. We are virtual at the book shop. Its good to be here. To our audience. We want to let them know. For those o you have that have not got connors book. I dont think w have ever talked about getting some signed book rights. Welcome everybody. I will introduc maries. And he was born and raised in new orleans. He published his debut novel we cast a shadow in 2019 and it w a finalist for the pen open book awards. The first novel of prize. An asstant professor of creative writing and he is also the 20202021 writer and resident. With the university of mississippi. Welcome back to the Garden District bookshop. It is my honor to introduce our author today. Here is connor town oneil. Connor towne oneill. He works as a producer on the npr podcast. He now lives in tuscan alabama. Congratulations connor. We cant wait to hear more about it. For this portion i know you are interested in reading some of the work that are gathered here today. I will just sit here at the outset. Deftly get your thoughts together. If you want to ask the questions out loud. We will get to hear night talking. Back in 2015 i was in selma alabama reporting on the 50th anniversary of blood he sunday. The attack by the Alabama Law Enforcement it was the climax of the civil rights movement. In 1965. President obama is in town. 40,000 other people shop. Theyre just overcrowded with people and i think, im in a pull into this cemetery. Everything will be good. I got way more than i bargained for. The confederate section of that cemetery. They are about to put up a second statue of the confederate general. And that encounter of the day. It threw me for a loop. To put up a monument to him on 2015. And this went down the rabbit hole that is what ive been doing for the last five and half years. Thats it i picked up in that cemetery back in selma. I think thats all it that is necessary to set this up. This one is in selma. Here we go. There is a story from late in the war that ive come to think of of of the parable for his light and memory. It is september 10, 1864. A trade depot near train depot near the mississippi alabama border. It has been almost a year since lincoln and the gettysburgs address recaps the war. In just days since the Union General sherman took atlanta. The attempt to cut off the supply line. The confederate rebellion to expand slavery as a cause increasingly raw. They have a listed in that rebellion. Now he is a major general. He will be promoted once more before the section ends. They have never been to west point. And have barely attended school at all. What i think of as a snake he has famously said. Other commanders might see the correspondence read or consult with advisors. He techs his hands behind his back. And mutters to himself. His steps in scribe ice circle around the station. He has grievances to air. Without breaking stride and without lighting up and without hardly looking up the nexus soldier unconscious with a single blow. Another looks on and describes what happens next in this journal. After the blow they keep walking as if nothing has happened. Calmly and unconsciously stepping over the prostrate body each time he came around again. Each time he came around again. Has monument have a way of doing that also. Ive stopped thought of the story in selma. He did not want to talk to me about for a statues. At least not at first. A week after the inauguration. That is not just any confederate statue. And then the statue is still out and just after another one goes up in its place. The whole country is engulfed in a debate. With the pennsylvania number start calling you. He was skeptical. My calls went to voicemail. I figured the sense of what was at debate. I spoke with his niece and then eventually he heard me out. I was using as a way to look at race and memory and the legacy of the war. He sighed and agreed to meet to an interview. It was a pronouncement of war. Thank you very much for readg that. We will do our conversation no before we get to the book itself so many amerins. Im big fan of podcast. This is maybe twor three on a given day. When i came across years i was astounded. Its so quickly enged with these. The rst question is how does it feel to be nominated for a pulitzer prize. It is just incdible that your work makes it into the public. All the more incredible that people engage in it. Writing is such lonely work. Just like the hours that you spenn the knuckle biting hair pulling 11th revision of the piece. And then for it to be acknowledged like that a couple more questions. And i will not spoil it for people who have not heard the podcast. In the podcast near the end of the series is one of the biggest twists i was just wondering how does it feel out there on the scene. You actually got some answers. True in any story really. You jus head to keep showing up. Youust head to keep asking. And putting your way puing yourself in the way of the story. I think a lot of it in the particulars o the story. It has to do with that a lot of the sources would talk to us because we were white. A lot of the orientation o the work. Was talkingbout race. Evenack into the civil war. Talking about race andther white people about race is the responsibility that white people need to take on in earnest. Th was probably the part of the motivation of t story. There are sources here. Beuse of who we are we might have a chance of getting at. Thats what were trying to do never reallyxpecting that it would pay off. Of course it did. In and a big relevant tor way. As part of a function ofow white people talk to other whe people about race. We want to avoid talking about it. And then we are conflated with thnorm. But thinking about it more poignantly and trying to report stories that touch on that i think. I think you for that word. What you just said. It hit home. My brother and his best friend. Im sure he is here somewhere. We have thisn selma a few years ago. What they might tell him. And we discuss tha i think one of the lessons that it proves in the podcast. Ry directly. The are things that you can uncover that some people cannot uncover. My last qstion on the podcast or you c you can continue along the line with the future work or are you going somewhere else for the next step. I hope to keep doing both. From a writing from a reporting point of view its pretty similar work. One of the great things. As you get to bring in peoples voices. Those voices especially folks in marion who are so crucial to that. That is more rural. And to be able to include their voices in the show is very powerful. I love writing. I really enjoy the process of the book. The way that you write you can go slow or fast. You dont have the luxury. You have to nail it especially when you want to get into big ideas you have to figure out a way that you can be address and straightforward. The way that you are structuring your sentences and try to make it still be lyrical and powerful if you will let me Say Something like literary it is a fun challenge of writing. I want to keep writing books. Im trying to find that next thing. I can cook keep working in both forms. I really appreciate that you talk a lot about it. I think most americans have some connection to someone like him in the past. I might actually be related to the guy who fired the first shot at four. I think the first time actually heard his name was watching for us, the film. What is the guy on the force. He has also alluded to in films. The nation for example. How do you get them for the focus is. To follow him along. Totally coincidental on the anniversary. They were getting ready to pick up. When i met them they were telling me this long story of the two decades they felt there. The more i looked into them. He would be a really not just his life and the story leading up to it. And the way that they get remembered after the war. He has born in 1821. It moves west has more and more land opens up. He rains up in memphis. The 1840s or 50s. Have been made illegal. Enslaved people from the upper south are moved from the upper south down. And he is like the pivot point there. Millions of dollars in todays terms. His life is hitting on all of these flash points flashpoints leading up to the war. He enlists in the war and he is so rich he equips his own troops during the war. With the selfmade man. They are the most promoted soldier of the war. She fights in the western theater of the war. That becomes the real Sticking Point if they head per promoted forest sooner. They have to apologize for not promoting it sooner. The south will rise again folks. They got the shot and failed. A little bit more violent. Also a superman. He has become a rising star. Of folks that want to fight the civil war again. There are more markers of him in tennessee than the states three president s divined. They are telling the story of slavery with the massive wealth that was stolen in that system. You could tell the story of the plan and reconstruction. And then you can tell the story through him of the neo confederates wanting to keep this were going. Long after the military conflict. It was a really interesting figure. At the war in its memory. People in the state of tennessee its so interesting to me. Even before we came on the call today. I was reading an article about this fraternity. And they looked at robert e lee for the founding father. Right now here. And are up and going campus. And for maybe four days ago. There was a family out there i dad and mom and two kids and two teenagers. When they got close to it. It is about the men what fought fought and died for that. One thing i remember from my writing. It was very much anti racist in slavery. Why is this such the buy in the nation. Man was a human trafficker. Its a good question. I think some of those mom humans like the one on campus in oxford. Really gives us the real divide divide there. That are meant to enshrine these individuals. But then the ones that are everywhere. That are confederate dead. You think are they sound a little bit more anodyne. There was a soldier. We are honoring our doubt that. In the moment after the war. The great historian of the civil war talked about how they had two major tasks. The one was the full investment in citizenship. Into a multi racial democracy the reunification of the right white americans. Given the moment and you are getting it both. The reconstruction gets undermined. The confederates return to power in the north goes along with it. But the country is reunified. The way that it gets remembered then it is not about slavery and not about the waves of the modern economy. And not about the physical and spiritual torture of the enslaved people. All of that gets sidestepped. It is about the brave soldier and the sacrifice that they made. That mostly slavery was a benign system. The enslaved people were happy. The magical thinking that becomes the perceived wisdom of the war we are just honoring our debt. There is no lasting injury here. This is just our heritage. If you look at what the confederate president was saint this is about slavery and we are justified. And mark perniciously we are justifying slavery. On the life. So even though you get to the 1u abolish slavery that lie about White Supremacy process especially the ones to the confederate dead are about another one of the lies that we tell ourselves. We are not squaring up to the history and the central attentions of the country that made the war happen and that persisted long after the war ended because we did not square up to that. I think thats part of how it gets remembered. He was a selfmade man. They have this military is savant at least thats what they say in public. In private its no coincidence that theres all statues. There is a the plausible deniability that because we have such faulty memories of the war and the meaning of the war people can say in public. It is just a way that you can get a coping mechanisms that white americans can develop not thinking about the terrifying effects of the history. And may be more maybe more pertinently the fact that that history could have a claim on us in the present. That is magical thinking. The point you made about how faulty our memories are that makes me think about Education First in for most. Do you have any sense of how the book will be received in colleges or high schools. A big reason as possible. If we go through school. You could go to school in america your entire life. It is possible to pay a lot of money to get that degree and not have a clear sense of what is real or not real. Im just wondering. Do you i do think it will be received as we can think about this or this is texas for example. Theyrjust causing trouble and making us look bad. I defitely hope so. Alice randall. I was on a panel with her a couple weeks ago. She wrote this great when mixed. She told me that she will teach the book. It is incrediblend excing. I was talking to the teacher at my Old High School they want to teach ithich is really cool to think about. I got the same state right stuff also. And i think its comunded in the north because it we we like to tell ourselves that this is the hisry that is down there. And race so f as it still a problem in america they call it the treasury ovirtue. Because were affiliated with the union were goo is history has no claim on us. I hope so. I hope it makes its way in. In so many pnts. At is the real massive one that we need to sque up to. Also the colonial roots of europes being on this continent in so many different factors. I think in all of them the deeper thingshat i hope you can addre schools is that we are not owed. Weave no reasonable expectation for happy district. I think we hav this naive expectation that Civil War History has to flatter us. Thats nice and it can be intoxicating almost. Tohink that we can look to the past weave no reasonable expectation of that. If we were able to find a way to look bkwards in a way that is meant to console us but to show us how we have wound up here. An give us the mask for understanding the good thing about the present the lasting injuries that we are bringing in. Think we would be a lot closer to be abl to address these issues. We love to inherit the good stuff. The idea that we might inhit some injury from the past that we suld be responsible for. I think if we are able to tell the truth at an early age abou the civil war. And get us a deeper ia. A good number of them came up in that time. A whole bunch came up. Then there was a struggle growing on. And then for five years ago. One or two went down. You have someone go down and other places. The City Council Council where the police jury people of their own accord are taking it down. What has caused the reversal of the generation. One of those two beak dash make big peaks. It tells you everything you need to know. And who the intended audience is. There has been this growing movement the past couple of years. And the inciting incident. Soon after this. The images from the blog start to circulate. Almost to seal himself for that act of terrorism. Visiting slave memorials. In the confederate statue. They scaled the flagpole. I think it was a real exciting incident. That was true on campus. And so you see over the years since 2015. Which is the inciting incident for the book when the campaign started happening. And for a couple of years i think you see a lot of movements trying to proceed. Follow the prescribed. When the statutes came down. The history of the presentation. I was monitoring some Message Boards and social media accounts after that. They were really pointing to that. You see, i told you. If we let multiculturalism went white people are under threats. This is the canary in the coal mine. That paranoia kicks in. And they start consolidating and organizing more. And that is what is good and lead to the unite the right. Of course there is a renewed call to take down more statues and like you said. A couple of them come down. Its not a mass removal. The summer there is. I think we are seen at the realization of years of movement work. To get more people to think about to see that the statues are there. One just to see them and to understand what they represented and the symbols for the deeper system we get the incredible and powerful images weve got in the summer. Whether that is tagging the statute. In birmingham people pulled the truck up. To put a chain around it. There is a real power in them. It is important for cities to officially say i think there is a real power to tha this question is this aittle bit different than the previousuestions. You did a lot of research on what america was going tough and when theyere being placed up there. I think aut us being one of the most diverse countries in the worl for most of her history. It was like 50 or 70 sometimes a bubbles up. It bubbles u and clearly the civil war has been great bubbling up. I goes over the edges of t container and goes everywhere. How do you see us as a society right now with them sing take these down. The president say n no you cant do that. With the military bases. And thene says dont do it. To people that were going to protest on both sides. How do you see us as a culture right now. It w a great image. And s much resentment and i think a feeling among some white americans. It was bng taken away from them. People are hoppinghe line whether that is people of color immigrants coming with the social safety net or whether that is it could be equalpportunity stuff. I think that has been true for decades. The longstanding resentment. An white people are owed a certain amount. To address the longstanding inequities. It was often violently so. It was seen as taking away what was rightfully there. And now we have a president that spes that language. It has made it really mbustible. I think in some ways you can read the unite t right rally. I think this is my countr and i wont be replaced. They have to ask for it now. Because the had been gains to try to use that. With the lasting inequities. As soon as i happens it happens there is a backlash. And i want t try to predict the future but i think based on the summer and the vionce it have happened it isard to imagine what could calm things. What are you thinking. You think about this a lot. And you write about this. Your book is only a year old but it feels like we are sort of livingn the future and we cast a shadow. What you see when you look to the future right now. The way i look at it is that with the second civil war. As positive that were in a cold civil war. The difficult tasks. Is that at the bottom of the dip. Or is it still a long way from the bottom. I think its impossible to answer if something happens. It would not have happened if we didnt have the current president for example. We only get the reality there. Thats how i think about it. I do want to reserve some time for questions from the audience. With the reaction. What did you start to research. I think its hard now. Its hard now bause we cant go anywhere. Th reflect a set of values. It was jt out walking time taken. Whore streets named after. And tookt talking to folks at the library. At every 2 00 p. M. They were the library. They are the repositories. A lotf that knowledge. They will point to to the books and stuff. They will also need any pointheir older folks. And not secret just to keep the history. That are incredible to talk too. And they love hing people to talk too. Those are two great places to start. The pandemic makes that tough. But its still doable over the phone or on my. Will take a few more queions again we can use the chat or do make sure that you order a copy o the book. The second questn in the chat here. Can they be used to educate the public. I think its tricky. Monuments arent about history. If you have a foot bronze statue. Were not really seen much of our history. This is someone who got a crash course. If you dig deep in they dont take things at face value they can communicate a lot of important information. Did they work in museums. Did they put out more signage to try to put more context around. Did they try to get the names changed. They were referred to as a protection act. Because they cant change the name. We are gonna put up some more signage around the building to tell the truth about what happened in 19584 years before the school integrated that led us to name the building for us. I think it can be interesting. Im interested to see what they actually say on those plaques. They are tricky they require a lot of context. There is a real power and maybe it is a kind of perverse pleasure. I think it can be added context. We doave to revise so much of that story. Imagine you get married and your partner areour husband or whoever tells youhat the is a statute right up the road. For the person that shot your dad. It is the different parts of the community. Where were the titles of the book tt came from. Reporting and for different ties. It meant a lot of driving me. Especially at night you get into a feud sta. It kind of piecemeal t that. This idea that came out of a student letter to the editor at middleennessee state they had been fighting over the forest for half a century. On that campus. Back in the 60s there was an editor letr. We have t good sense have along with his bones. It was kd of a nonsense title. Is there anything else you want to ask connor . I have a question. Is there anybody or any situation that stands out in your mind as being particularly important to you or enjoyable or enlightening to you in your journey of writing the books. The conversations that i have with the reverend perkins a really important because i think it was one of those moments where the reporting of the book taught me a lot about how to write it and how to position myself in it. Early on. When i was first researching and reporting it i really did concede this book as a much more detached third person approach. I wasnt from the south. Im a journalist not an activist. I could just sort of cover them. Trying to get them to talk to me. And him being really skeptical of meat was really enlightening. He was not going to talk to me about what it meant for him. I think he wanted to know that i understood i have a stake in it too. I was just parachuting in looking at the spectacle of the story. And is kind just kind of get to take the story and run with it. As a white person this has impacted me also. Race is a problem for black people. There were encounters like that who made me realize. I have a stake in this too. And i think about how i am positioned and see how force legacy has shaped my life also. I was can have to get closer to it. And versions of that played out in a lot of these. And to recruit me. One called me a proud confederate soldier. They saw that i could have a common stake with them. What about my life had been shaped by race in the White Supremacy policies. Even though i had grown up so far from selma. I think just reported taught me how to orient myself to this material. In a really important way. That encounter stis out the most. They do their ownesearch and their ownroject. I thinke can expect much more fantastic work fro you. Very beginning of a project. Im not sure how you are. Im a little super sisters i am working on another project that makes the same move in to see how it still with us. It is is another one of these long deep historical dives. Good luck with it. And again. It is in the chat. Thank you for putting that in there. It is amazing. Thank you all vy much for being here today. Thanks for doing this. It is enlightening evening and i really look forward to what you had coming up into sell a lot of your books. I look for to selling a lot more. Thank you everybody for coming tonight. And thanks again for such enlightening evening. Here are some of the current bestselling. The life and political career. With the exploration of what they called the hidden caste system. They examine the history of america. After that robin wall suggest that we should work with. In wrapping up our look at some of the best selling books according to Portland Oregon and the best of me. The collection of stories and essays some of these authors have appeared on book tv. On our Author Interview program afterwards the former Deputy Assistant and the general in the george w. Bush administration weighed in on political power. Here is some of the discussion. The thing that really worried me was that he was a populace. Its fairly democratic in nature in a lot of ways. I was worried when they came and as a populace who wants to achieve an agenda that he feels he received a mandate for. When you go the constitutional restraints. In things like that travel band. Without congressional approval. They tried to use the president ial powers primarily for national security. And to understand that his role is really come forth. And then to work with congress to get legislation passed. I think what happened since 2017. I think they have gone too far. To try to stretch the constitution. On the legitimacy. They checked out getting talk to getting rid of the electoral college. And packing the supreme court. To have six new members. Who want to return us to a world of permanent independent councils. You want to nationalize large parts of our economy. They were undeniably using that. With them rely on more traditional interpretations of the constitution. Click the afterwards tab near the top of the page to find all previous episodes. Here are some programs to watch out for tonight. With the nuclear disaster. And on our Author Interview program afterwards. Deborah stone argues that numbers are not objective. It is a great honor to be your moderator for tonights program. First of all, on behalf of the marcus jcc and the national jcc Literary Consortium im pleased to welcome you to this special book festivalnt