about. this is what they re seeing in the meaning of those monuments. the president has described the monuments as beautiful and he argues that george washington and thomas jefferson were slave owners, might their statues be next. trump adds the removal of monuments amounts to the changing of history and culture. do you believe that? do you agree? well, there s a powerful argument out there about a slippery slope or a so-called powerful argument that if you remove a lee, you have to remove a washington. i think this is just wrong. there are lots of distinctions. we asked what do people stand for today, what do they stand for in their lifetimes and what did the statues stand for when they were put up. i think we can make really good distinctions among these different kinds of monuments. john fabian witt from yale law school. john, thank you so much, look forward to seeing you again and appreciate your time. quick break, everybody. we re keeping a close eye on things in boston. you
right now to me or to historians around the country, i think. okay. so look, we ve seen what s happened in charlottesville and this is not the first time that there have been heightened emotions surrounding statues of the confederacy or other symbols that elicit tremendous emotion on both sides. do they belong in public places, john? is there a better place for them where historians like yourself, where professors like yourself, where people can learn more about them without using them as rallying cries? well, there are a lot of hard judgments to make. i think individual communities are going to make their judgments on their own. there s some guiding principles that we can think about, though, for making those judgments. we can remember our history without celebrating white supremacy. we can ask about what the person honored stands for, what their legacies are. we can ask why the monument was put up in the first place. we can ask whether the person was out of step in his or her
right now about a new poll that shows that a majority of americans are in favor of confederate statues. 62% saying statues of leaders of the confederacy should remain as historical symbols. 27% say they should get them out of here. let s bring in john fabian witt. not a relative of mine. john, the debate that s under way right now, should it be about statues? do they have a place in our society, whether they re of historical significance, they could be teaching moments, or should we be talking about the real cause of the civil war and why monuments to confederate leaders are offensive to many in the first place? well, statues are really important ways in which we communicate as a collective, as a community, what s important to us and what we celebrate, what we commemorate and how we remember. so it s not surprising that we re living with live history