this is a film about storytelling, about how we tell the story of our country's past. why do we want to believe one version and not another? maybe because it makes us feel safe at night. there's one episode of america's history that is told very differently, depending on who you are and where you live. it is the story of our civil war and what came after. the hot winds of war blew across the land, made of it a country divided. friend turned into foe, brother fought against brother. it was such a long and drawn out struggle and the feeling on both sides was so intense. >> we're all just romantics lost in contemporary time, you might say. every one of us feels like we were born 125 years too late. >> to introduce myself, my name is rachel boynton. this is nelson walker. we are in pen accident documentary filmmakers. we made a film about the civil war. we're going to places with a deep connection to this history. >> there's a lot more coming. >> what made you choose the civil war and reconstruction? >> well, you know, america is kind of like a big family that tore us apart during the several war, and in order to make peace, we told ourselves a certain story about it. and for a long time, we had trouble telling the difference between that story and the truth. >> you can ask me anything you want. >> what did you want to do when you were little, and did you have a backup for if you couldn't get that? >> when i was really little, i wanted to be superman. when i got a little older, i wanted to be an anthropologist. do you know what an anthropologist is? >> no. >> somebody who goes around the world and studies the way people live. >> so kind of like this? >> kind of like this, yeah. >> people are having to come to grips with civil war and ten slavement which are sort of the founding bases of the country. our. >> our country is like a really old house. you may not want to go into that basement, but if you don't go into that basement, it's at your own peril. whatever you are ignoring will be there to reckon with until you reckon with it. ♪♪ >> these were all happening on the eve of the civil war. i'm interested in what you think about it, i'm interesting in who's saying this, and i'm going to give you the succession documents from philadelphia. who is he? >> a philadelphia congressman. >> he's from ohio. he delivers this when? when is that written? >> december 22nd, 1860. >> exactly. what is he basically saying? >> he doesn't want secession because he knows if there's secession, there will be a huge war. >> people will know this war with their own eyes. they will, you know, really experience war amongst ourselves. >> he sounds scared, doesn't he. >> yeah. >> yeah. i think he probably was. what stood out to you in the arguments? >> so our article was presented by alexander stevens in atlanta, georgia. not once does he talk about property and slavery and what the war is really about, what they're fighting for. >> other voices? >> i know there seems to be a common idea that the civil war was totally about slavery. i'm going to disagree with that. the south did want to leave the union because of slavery, but the issue of the civil war was keeping the south in the union. so slavery isn't like the entire issue. >> pushback? comments? we will continue tomorrow. >> you are a thinker. that is for sure. >> the wedge is the slavery issue, right? i think we agree on that. it's just a way of describing it. good job. go, go, go. >> we're spending a lot of time telling the story on civil war and the reconstruction in your eighth grade class. why? >> because i think we have not adequately, you know, understood who we are as a nation. there's so much of this history that has been way too difficult for this country to look at. the reason it's important to understand this history is because we carry it within us. these things need to be unpacked and looked at and talked about, and we need to decide what we think about them now. it's challenging, but it's where the juice is. >> we call it the war of 20 states here. we don't call it the civil war. >> why is it important to call it the war between the states? >> because that's what it was. >> it wasn't part of the civil war. >> the north came down and invaded us. we didn't go up there. >> my grandmother said they had to hide the food in the chimney because the soldiers would come in and take everything they had. they would take their livestock, any food they had in the house. it was terrible. the war took place in our backyard. for the people up north, the war was a distant thing. >> we're both members of the sons of confederate veterans, and we are responsible for taking care of this cemetery. but i'm afraid when herb and i are gone and our generation, there's not going to be anyone around to take care of it. >> or to promote the true history of the 1860 hf1860-1865 of time. >> this class that the teacher is teaching is teaching the civil war. >> you're telling stories about my ancestry, about my family, about my country in the south. >> and tell me what the untrue thing is. >> slavery. they are not telling the whole story. slavery was one of the reasons, but for that professor to say that economics had nothing to do with that war is totally false. >> i would have fought for the south. you know why? it had nothing to do with political reason. it's because my home was being invaded. >> the confederacy lost this war big time. no americans have ever lost a war quite like the confederacy lost this war. ♪♪ >> white southerners are going to need to process what the meaning of that whole collapse of their society really is. and their explanation of their defeat becomes a narrative. it becomes a memory. it becomes the lost cause tradition. and the lost cause tradition was this argument that the confederacy had really fought for noble aims. the war wasn't really entirely about slavery it. was about defending their homelands, their families, their women. slavery was not the great issue. if left to them, they would have handled slavery over time and maybe even gotten rid of it themselves, they said, which is nonsense. there were alternative textbooks eventually published in the south. it wasn't just the textbooks they were trying to control. it was the stories that were being widely told in the public arena, and they had a tremendous influence. so what does it say about the americans in the civil war is who gets to control the narrative, this story. who gets to control the narrative, this story. is the planning effect. this is how it feels to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. are you a radical person? >> no. >> they tell us something about why we're so divided. do you see us living in a divided country? >> every day. ♪♪ i'm a member of the -- education first. >> the kids i have here are determined to not fall in the footsteps of what was in the past. i'm hoping i can spark something in them to say i want to know more, i want to learn more. >> in mississippi, do people talk about slavery as the cause of the war. >> you don't really heard the word "slavery ots or "slaves." it's a pl part of it. the term was "whitewash" as i told my class. a lot of times you want to see the good part of history, especially the history you were a part of, and you want to minimize the bad part about it. slavery is not an easy topic to tackle for black or for white. >> so how do you tackle the story of slavery? >> one thing is the slaves were more powerful than we give them credit for. >> people say that lincoln freed the slaves, but you say actually they freed themselves why. >> that was a question. >> yeah. why couldn't slaves free themselves in the sense before all of this if they freed themselves? >> we didn't have the abolition, but you had turner, the people who stepped forward. those people to me were just as brave as the 1960s, probably more brave. think about nat turner. >> to make a change, you've got to be a little crazy. >> that's it. he calls people to think. he went from plantation to plantation killing everybody, and he wanted to kill the women and children. he wanted to do that. why. >> you expect a dude to be there. you wouldn't expect a mother or three kids. like if you want them -- he set the right tone. you're killing wives, children. >> they probably would have been turned into slaves anyway. >> whose bravery of the system was wrong? that's what makes these guys to be heroic. we can't devalue what we did. >> a white guy whose grandfather was a confederate, if they can keep their memory alive, why can't we? >> in holmes county, i noticed how we had the browns and the williams. we also had caucasian people with the same last name, and i was always wondering is there a relation between the two, and then i learned that, you know, slaves got their last names from their slave owners, so like did this family own this family or come from -- i always wondered about that. >> there's this enormous history of slavery in holmes county do. people ever talk about that? >> about? >> just the question of the history of slavery here. >> no. >> do you know if your ancestors were enslaved here? >> i don't know. >> would you want to know? >> not really. >> why? >> because i don't want to think about what all they went through for us. >> how come? >> because they are -- because they worked for all their life being enslaved and not being treated right. that would just bring me down because they suffered, and i wish somebody could have did something back then to help them out. >> so you don't want to think about it because it makes you sad. >> mm-hmm. >> i don't want to hate people. i want to hate people based on their character toward me now, not what they did hundreds of years ago or what their families did hundreds of years ago. >> i think white people are afraid it's going to make them feel ashamed. >> yeah. i think so too. that's why i think -- they're probably -- when they're teaching -- and i keep going back to the teaching, but it's like this is where it all starts because i doubt if a white man would tell his 6-year-old daughter we owned slaves or we did this to slaves or -- i doubt if that happens. >> i think we all should learn the real history because as black people, we think we know, but we don't. i never met my great-grandmother, and, you know, they don't talk about slavery and the racial desegregation. they don't talk about it. >> would you want to ask her about it. >> i would, but i wouldn't -- i think she would say she don't know to avoid the conversation. >> and why do you think she would want to avoid the conversation? >> it might hurt her. she might feel mad about it. >> it's hard to talk about things like that. >> yeah. ♪♪ >> it's personal around here. we're in a southern city and we're talking about the civil war. and i'm going to have students who are pulling for the confederacy. i was that student. i pulled for the confederacy because they're southern. i'm southern, right? and it's not about slavery in your mind. it's just like it's the cowboys versus the redskins, and you want the cowboys to win the football game, right? that's what it is in their head. when you throw slavery in there, it complicates it. it's not a football game. this was real. in most history classes we teach that they write history. when we look at southerns and t happens, i want to know why. it's such a powerful thing. >> turn to your packets. what we've got is the history of slavery. i want you to talk about what jumps out at you. >> it says 1 million white families owned know slaves and a little over 350,000 owned slaves. that's only like a fourth or fifth, which is actually a pretty crazy statistic. so a handful had one to five around the household which probably would have been treated pretty well. >> well, it depends. >> of course the southerners were treating them -- well like humans because they were like investments. >> that's right. i want it to produce more money, therefore, i take care of it. i don't take care of it and provide. it's still a dirt floor i sleep on, you know. in the south, where was the wealth? so owning land and owning slaves. if i invested $23,000 in something, i don't want to beat it to a pulp, right? so why do they do it? >> fear. >> fear. you hit on it. that's what they're worried about. money and fear. they're making lots of money and they're terrified if it goes away. what happens if they talk about abolition and emancipation? what do i start picturing in my head? 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like with slavery, it lasted 200 years. you have to develop a psychology on the part of the white people who are doing this. that involves enormous acts of denial. we haven't even claimed it as the horrific system that it was. >> she says slavery is the cause, and so many white people we hearsay don't talk to me about slavery, i didn't own slaves, my parents didn't own slaves. >> the cultural conditioning that began in slavery has continued. the privileges that you see some white people have goes back to more than, i'm better than you. >> why? why? why, rachel? why are they better? >> oh, i don't believe it. >> i know it. but why do they think they're better? >> privilege. privilege has told them they're better. >> they don't even know they're privileged. i remember reading a book in seminary. >> what do you mean they don't know they're privileged? >> i serve a congregation of overeducated white people who don't recognize they're privileged. they don't see that you -- >> it's the norm. >> if you don't feel that you are privileged, how you do account for the differences between white people and disadvantaged black people? >> they're not comparing themselves to black people, right? my white friends are mostly compared themselves to other highly educated well-off white friends. >> but when you say white people can't get it, i don't -- i don't buy that. >> i don't know that they can't get i. they don't get it. >> i don't buy it for a moment. since the '60s i have been proving myself, and there comes a point in life when you say i'm done. it's on them now because i know i'm okay. so the way i look at it is, your loss. i don't intend to spend all of my life proving to white people that i'm okay. >> don't prove it. i think we've got to educate. >> no, we don't. >> well, what i'm saying -- >> no. they need to open their minds. last night i was at this dinner. it was conversation about slavery being the source of our racial problems. the topic of white privilege came up a lot, the idea that white people have advantages in this country or -- yeah, i mean advantages, or you could flip it around and say black people have disadvantages in this country simply because of skin tone. >> i feel like it kind of goes both ways. sometimes white people have a disadvantage. i had a friend a couple years ago, his gpa was 4.26. he had a friend who was black, and he had a 3.9. they both applied to princeton and he got in. it's like there are other ethnicities and we have to give them a chance. >> not talking about the race issue, just not bringing it up to the next generation would keep them natural in that sense, and they would not be racist. >> i don't think that slavery and the civil war and jim crow should be forgotten. i think they should be remembered because i think they're an important lesson that america isn't perfect and we'll work against that in the future. >> if you look at thing like the incarceration for like young black men in this country and why it's so disproportional or why you have the socioeconomic situations that you have between, say, white people and black people, that you can see this didn't come out of nowhere. this isn't a reflection of the tone of somebody's skin. it's based in history that goes back before your generation, before my generation, before my grandparents' generation. it goes way back. >> i think there's a balance between recognizing our past, but also not overtalking it and overemphasizing the problem to where it's always on our minds. it's difficult to be very equal when that's something that's always on your mind, racism and things like that. >> yeah. ♪♪ so please welcome dr. kelly carter jackson. >> so first off i want to tell you a story about one of my students. he raised his hand and he said, who is harriet tubman, and i was like, oh, my god. i tried really hard. as a professor, you have to fix your face. before i could answer the question, he goes, oh, i rememberful she's the woman who wouldn't get off the bus. and i was like, no, no, that's not her at all. but it's important because i think it highlights the fact that we only see like one great black man and one great black woman per century. so "force and freedom," my book tries to introduce new voices and white absolutionists. they're pushing back, collecting arms as much as they possibly can the to prepare for what they believe is inevitable, and that's the vie leblts overthrow of slavery. >> there seems to be a history of teaching this aspect of american history. look. i'm also a historian. i can understand. i can anticipate why. but i want to get you to talk about why it takes your book to underscore force as well as freedom, you know. we all know that that's a part of this history, but it's not taught that way. >> yeah. it's not taught, i think, because we have this, i think, hypocriical love affair with violence. we talk about violence, i think, in these really romantic ways, but that's only when we're talking about white men. when the situation is reversed, it is terrifying to think of black people using force or using violence to bring about their freedom. >> so i want to talk about what you've learned so far, right, in college. is there anything you've learned here about the story of the civil war that would be hard to talk about with people back home? >> yeah. my daddy is that typical southern male. he knows everything, and you don't question him, you know. i love him to death. that's just the way he is. that's the way people are down here. if i told him that the main cause of the civil war was slavery, then he would probably like, i don't know, open the bible and start preaching at me and stuff like that. i don't know. >> why would he find that offensive? >> well, my great-great-grandfather did fight in the civil war, and he did come back. he didn't die or anything. he came back alive, but it messed him up so bad. it was a bad situation for my family at the time that i would not know near enough about to really like be able to give you details, but it's just like remembrance of how hard times were at that time because it was really hard for my family because we were born and raised in mississippi, and like in my grandparents' house, there's a rebel flag in any one of those flag boxes. and like we don't take it out. we don't rub it in people's noses. it's just there above a cabinet. ♪♪ it has been called the war of brother against brother, the civil war. soldier and nation together found that their fears and doubts were not so strong as their faith, and in national tryings like gettysburg, we memorialize the men on both sides who gave of themselves unreservedly for what they believed to be right. remember and be proud. >> we never really had a racial reckoning. the problem started first immediately after the war. if you want north and south to get together and get along again, you don't talk about causes and consequences. you talk about the mutual valor on that battlefield. >> why doesn't that confederacy, which only lasted four years, just go away? the racial reasons are paramount, but it also has do with this idea that the confederacy was a dissent. man, they went to the limit, and they deserve respect for all that courage. they claim after they lost that they were only reacting to the overreach of centralized federal power, and there's a kind of admiration for that still in our culture. ♪♪ james mcgil settled this farm almost 200 years ago. i feel like i followed in his foot steps. my wife raised the children. i always ever worked. of course, the government too my home. during reconstruction, people in the south lost everything. i can empathize with them. it made me mad. i can understand why they were mad. it's been 150 years and people in the south are still mad about it. it's wrong for if federal government to dictate to the states what they should or should not do. and ever since the war, no one's property has been secure. there's a lot of talk of reparations for slaves, you know. my great-great-grandfather, nobody paid -- abraham lincoln emancipated the slaves. he didn't get paid. the war to prevent southern independence changed our country for the worst in my opinion. >> and what do you think? do you think the war changed the country for the worst? >> i'm trying to process everything. i do understand parts of what my father is speaking on because i feel that way, that the government is too big and has too much power. it's an invasion. but how long would it have taken to free the slaves? how long would it have taken for them to realize that slavery is wrong? >> do you think slavery left an imprint on the mind-set of people in america? >> sure it left an imprint. i'm saying the war left more of an imprint. that's my personal opinion. >> for black and white. >> yes. >> so you feel like the war itself was a bigger aggression than slavery. >> yes. >> it feels like you're dismissing the experience of millions of enslaived people. it feels like you're not feeling what they experienced at the hands of the people who were enslaving them. i mean how is treating people as property not a greater horror? >> well, my feeling was was it was a settled way of order. they had laws that they had to live up to and had forced on them and treat them civilly. i don't hate james mcgill. i just want universities and schools to stop hating or southern ancestors. they don't deserve that. ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us do you know what the confederate flag looks like? >> yes, it has a cross with red and blue and stars going through. >> when do you see it? >> i see it when i'm traveling and driving. i live in the countryside. there's white people back there. there's no black people. i see a lot of confederate flags hanging off the housing and off the backs of people's trucks. >> what does it make you think? >> grow up basically. >> in class you said you were a good public speaker. >> yes, i am. >> what makes you a good speaker? >> my projection, my performance. when i speak, i capture attention. i know that i capture attention. i do orator calls. i've won first place in five, six or ettore cals that i've competed in. i've won once or twice. >> i don't noticeny white kids. are there any white kids at the school? >> no. >> why is that? >> in my personal opinion i don't know why, but the seg get grags, it's why we are here. this is the black school. central is the white kids' school. it's the neighborhoods, how the parents celts everything. >> have you ever had a white friend? >> no. no. i've never had a white person around. i have never had a complete conversation to even be scioscia active. >> do you feel the civil war is your life? >> i feel it's relevant because your history is your story. whether or not you know it, it's your story. ♪♪ ♪♪ after condition americans in the union army, 120, 7 kachcry, 13 covered artillery remember minutes. they looked at east each other as family because if you're serving for three years all you have is your comrades. >> your left, your left. your right. your left, your left. your left, your left, right. your left, your left, your left. your left, your left, your left, right. company halt. >> so this is the african-american civil war museum. it was built to correct, to right the wrong in history. there was the conflict that did not include african-americans and the african-american soldiers and their great role in ending that war to preserve the nation and end slavery here in the united states. the war started but for two years president lincoln wouldn't let them join the army. then when he realized he couldn't win without us, they were enslaved. they literally end up with uniforms on and rifles in their pockets. if you think i live in a world that's out of control and there's nothing i can do it about, there is something you can do about it. you can take lessons from people who tell stories here in this museum. i think it's liberating. ♪♪ >> we're making this film about how we tell the story of the civil war, and i think you guys distanced that unit, right? >> yeah. >> what did you think? >> i think it's like, oh, the civil war, you know about it. but when you start to learn about it, there's so many like intricate details of why things happened. i think it's important we learn about it. the one thing that does like not concern me, but most people here have the same kinds of political views, which, you know, it's great to be around people who think like you, but at the same time, there's no like real conversation. there's no real dialogue and understanding like people who have different views than you, which is, i think, how we can move forward. i think that's important. >> and in order for people to really get your perspective and understand where you're coming from, what's one thing they should know about you? >> right. i mean the biggest thing for me is gender. i try to present as masculinely as i can, but, you know, people still sometimes take me for a girl, and that's like the biggest thing that's kind of hard for me to deal with. yeah. that's probably the biggest one. >> it's like you're not getting fully seen. >> right. yeah. reconstruction has been the most contested question in america's historical memory. reconstruction is a period of time that begins immediately after the war, 10 to 12 years when america had to truly reinvent itself. 14th amendment puts equal protection of the law into the u.s. constitution, and the right to vote for black men in the '50s was a constitutional and legal revolution, and some black spokesmen by the 1890s and turn of the century would call 1865 as the zero of a new calendar, a new beginning of the history itself, but you have to incorporate the white south into an american union, a society that just lost approximately 18% of its adult male population in war. how you do reunify those people at the emotional level with the side that is the victor? t is th? this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to know you have a wealth plan that covers everything that's important to you. this is what it's like to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. making sure you have the right balance of risk and reward. and helping you plan for future generations. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. hi, i'm steve and i live in austin, texas. i work as a personal assistant for future generations. to the owner of a large manufacturing firm. i've got anywhere from 10 to 50 projects going at any given time. i absolutely have to be sharp. let me tell ya, i was struggling with my memory. it was going downhill. my friend recommended that i try prevagen and over time, it made a very significant difference in my memory and in my cognitive ability. i started to feel a much better sense of well-being. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. we're having our monthly civil war roundtable. we call ourselves the east bridgewater civil war table named after our town. >> we sent 300 men from this town. >> i think it was 400. 50 of them died. the basis of our meeting tonight is basically called reconstruction, what went right and what went wrong. holy mackerel. hello, hello. what a crowd. we're going reconstruction, the physical period of time from 1865 to 1877. you know, in the school system, we came to reconstruction in the chapter ended on the civil war. >> how are you going to rebuild this part of the country, how are you going to do that? >> no one on the civilian side, on the confederate presidency was forced to concede and repudiate what they believed and we allowed a group of people that waived our misdirection against their government to build statues to their heroes. so that has kept it alive. we have never solved the core problem of the civil war and that is why reconstruction didn't have a chance. the north was fighting back and forth during the whole reconstruction period. >> and let's not forget the elephant in the room. north and south were racists. the black was not considered to be a human being. >> have you ever had an african-american member of this group? because it struck me in the conversation about race that everyone was white? >> no, we really haven't. >> you have looked at the demographics of even bridgewater and the area. we're in the 90s, which is -- well which is an odd thing because we live, we border brockton which is predominantly minorities which are the majorities now. how do you reach out to say that their welcome. i mean, their welcome. how do you make them feel that their welcome. here, i think we make them feel welcome. but how do you do that. yeah, that is a good question. i'll have to think about that. it is the same question as why we live right next to brockton and we don't have a larger population of blacks. i live in the town of kingston and there is not a large population in the town of kingston. the high school is the fourth or fifth least diversified high school with 1500 kids in it. i mean, there are a few families, but why, yet you go into brockton or new bedford, you find a community, because those minorities feel more comfortable there, you know? i don't know. i don't have the answers. ♪♪ [ singing ] >> at the end they say shadow beneath our hand, may we ever tand, true to our god, true to our native land. to you guys were tricky, by native land, what are you talking about? >> us, our land. >> what does us mean to you. what was reconstruction? when was it? after slavery. yes. >> after the civil war. >> after the civil war. this is when black people try to teach america how to have a democracy. black people were able to vote in the south and they passed laws to say things like everybody should go to school for free. and they say white people too. yeah, you poor white people. john langston came to d.c. as a congressman from virginia. this man was borge into -- this man was born into slavery. that is why i love reconstruction. you had real heroes. are we any different than these people were? no we're not. you know the difference. we just don't remember. >> my name is greg carr and i'm a chair of the department of afro american studies here at the university. >> and what connection do you have to the history of the civil war in reconstruction? >> well, in addition to the direct history, my ancestors had been brought here from north carolina and alabama. no civil war veterans in my direct family. but we were enslaved in alabama. so obviously coming out of the civil war, my family share croppers come in there, jim crow and great migration through the south, i'm a living part of that stream of history and as a professor here at howard university, in african studies, i devote a great part of my work to understanding the implications of the civil war and reconstruction in terms of contemporary american life. >> what is this right here? deed of sale. these are reconstruction era documents. most of the people in the country don't know nothing about that. you could say we saw the charter and the deed of sale for the land. >> you're the only teacher i filmed who focused on the free people's point of view when teaching reconstruction. how does teaching from that point of view make a difference for your students. >> i hope they will walk out with a sense of human purpose that they have a stake in. there is always the threat of forgetting in terms of national memory. when you start talking about a setler state like the united states with many different people, there is almost a required for getting, a violence of forgetting to force a type of unity of culture, the unity of national identity. so the work that remains to be done is to recognize our full history. that story will make you so proud, it will also break your heart. k your heart. ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oohohh ♪ ♪ in the dark, dark ♪ new cheetos boneless wings. exclusively at applebee's. (tiger) this is the dimension of imagination. new cheetos boneless wings. ♪ ♪ my name is brother rogers. i work at the mississippi department of archives and history. i created a website with the picture of every historical marker in the state. >> you have taken a picture of the clinton riots marker. >> i have taken a picture of that marker. i know where it is. near the railroad track in clinton. >> that is right. and tell me what you know about that marker. >> well i think that the clienton riot marker is particularly important because there a riot during reconstruction in the town of clinton that was not in the history books that i read growing up, studying mississippi history and the local public schools. >> reconstruction in america, not just in mississippi, is one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated historical eras and the people who wrote about it afterwards, north and south, wrote about it from a white supremacy point of view, whether they were in alabama or mississippi. there was a lot of violence throughout america during reconstruction against african-americans. it is a terrible time in our history from that perspective. it is a great time of experimentation with providing the rights of citizenship and political equality to african-americans. unfortunately through the lens of white supremacy that was too much for a lot of white people to take during that time. >> are there any other markers in mississippi that acknowledge white violence against african-americans? >> the only marker of which i'm aware that exists, that depicts and talking about white violence against black people during reconstruction is the clinton riot marker. >> in mississippi? >> in mississippi. >> my name is missy jones. my title is visiting instructor of history at the college. >> how long have you been working on the the clinton -- >> almost 15 years now, if i think back. >> what is this? >> this is johnson milling company. it is been here for ages. but right behind it is the location of the old train depot and the thought was that we would put the marker for the clinton riot here because of the importance of the train depot. the clinton riots began on september 4th, 1875 and the diagram behind me tells the version of those events. the original train depot is where white para military units flocked into clinton. there was a political rally and it was one of the first times that african-americans had gotten together to really listen to political candidates and it was organized by the republican party. but there was also a group of white democrats who were sent there to disrupt things, shots rang out, african-american families began to flee the scene, even one mother left her child in the hollow of a tree just for protection. and then over the course of the next several days white liners began to flood into clinton and then systematically round up those who organized the rally and then killed them. sometimes in front of their own family members. >> so this is a group of white democrats killing the black republicans who were -- >> correct. it was the plan of the white democrats to keep african-americans from voting. the violence served as a pretext for the return of white rule and the end of reconstruction in mississippi. >> do you feel like people know that this marker exists? >> no. i don't. just given where it is behind this old mill, i feel like it has the potential to look hidden and that was my fear with placing it here. i would definitely prefer it to be in a more prominent location because this event is by far the most important event that ever took place in the city. the clinton riot has always been one of these contested events, for years and years and years, it is told as if it was caused by african-americans. that they were going to take back the city, accost the women. for essentially 140 years the history was told incorrectly and the violence was blamed on the black members of the clinton community. >> my name is james robinson. i'm from here in clinton, lifetime resident except for a few years. >> i'm deborah. james is my cousin. >> this picture here, saddenly, my grandmother's grandmother. she was caught in the proximity of the clinton riot and in order to save her child, she hid the child in a tree and then after the squirming was over, they went back and got the child. as the article said, old clinton history told from tales by ex slaves, this was published in the newspaper in 1961. >> as far as the black citizens in clinton, you don't hear about our history. i think our elders have tended to just discuss things among themselves as opposed to bringing it to the forefront. because it can stir up a lot of emotions. >> and what is the result of stirring up emotions? >> you get a lot of good and you get some bad. >> what is the bad? >> the fact that somebody could vandalize if you put up anything. >> i just hope that doesn't happen in clinton. there is still a lot of racist attitudes. >> there are some that -- and i'm thinking about missy. when i first met missy, she said the first word that came out of her mouth was --. and her parents were so proud of her. when she said that word. because that meant that you knew you were superior to somebody else. >> you've been so dedicated for so long. you've dedicated so much care and time and effort to this. why do you care about this? >> i'm going to get emotional. but i grew up in a family in mississippi. my dad was from new york, mom's family was from south mississippi. 90% white, 10% black, still segregated in the ways in which people in the communities live. but i was raised in a racist family. racist community at the time in which i grew up, things have changed in a good bit now, but for me i didn't want to repeat that. i feel responsibility with the profession that i've chosen to tell things accurately and to not repeat generational incorrectness with my own family. i want to do something different. different. ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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(gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th [gaming sounds] [gaming sounds] [gaming sounds] just think, he'll be driving for real soon. every new chevy equinox comes standard with chevy safety assist, including automatic emergency braking. find new peace of mind. find new roads. chevrolet. that story was totally white. i used to think white supremacy meant a bunch of guys in white robes but we're only telling white stories. during the reconstruction era, there was fear all over the place. white fear of those black majority populations, if they really vote was colossal. so many white southerns saw this idea of black people serving on juries, black people owning land, it was an intolerable revolution. and it necessitated a counter revolution, even if it used terror as violence. a lost cause tradition was a response to that tremendous fear. we like to go to bed at night believing our society is in social order. i don't have to worry about my child tomorrow being confronted by totally unusual and repugnant ideas or totally unusual and repugnant people. i'm safe by the history i know. so the lost cause tradition that southerns developed is story for their explanation of their defeat became ultimately a victory narrative, a victory over reconstruction. and they crushed the very idea of slavery as the central cause and the very idea of emancipation of 4 million slaves as a result of the civil war. you begin to see wide scale efforts to crush what we call a black memory. >> if we throw away our confederate flag, we throw away the history of south carolina and of the united states. >> we are true southerners, i guess. to me it is a flag for everybody, black and white, representing our heritage. i can understand to some degree how they would have been upset years ago. but that is about 130 years ago now. to me it is our flag. [ crowd chanting ] [ yelling ] >> white only. no black. send them home. >> go home. >> breaking news, a horrific scene in charlottesville, virginia. a white national rally that descended into deadly violence and chaos. >> since the city voted to remove the robert e. lee statue there have been protests. and now violence. >> come here. who are you? >> i'm stephanie roth and i'm an assistant professor of history at millsaps college in jackson, mississippi. the images that we're seeing on our computers and television, we can't say this is an innocent past. >> like the old south. >> yes. what is the old south. >> after the civil war, the old south meant is that this mythology place of big plantation houses with corin theean columns and southern gentlemen and happy slaves. everyone is well taken care of. some people are owned by other people. but everyone is well fed, well clothed and loved and appreciated and this is why something like this would appeal to white northerners. because that is not the environment that they lived in. >> it is really a story about the merits of white supremacy. i spoke with another historian who said it was white supremacy that helped the north and south reunify after the war. do you think that is true? >> i fully believe that when we're talking even across the spectrum from the coming of the civil war to the prosecution of it and the aftermath, i think it is a much more productive approach to describe and understand white supremacy than it is to even talk about slavery. slavery doesn't survive. but white supremacy does. the war ends, reconciliation has been achieved. what happens unexpectedly is that in that reconciliation, the nation itself embraces the confederacy and the memory of the confederacy. this is why by the time you get to the 1930s, people from all ore over the country to coming to natches, mississippi to see women in hoop skirts and people dressed up as enslaved persons. this is a vacation for them. you could think of a cultural footprint of them today where the south gets sort of fetish-ized. >> grades second through fifth we used to go to the plantation. >> and what does that tour include? >> it included a tour of the plantation, they also had a little show put on and people dressed up and they sang songs and played music. it was like a little party. >> are the tours in in way engaging in enslavement. >> they don't talk about the slavery part. you're having a good time. i used to look forward to going to the plantation. it was a big deal. >> can we even think about these plantations as spaces of violence? we think about things like confederate monuments or symbols and flags, all of these remembrances are light visions, these are renewals of white supremacy. and in my mind, keeping that confederate battle flag in the top left corner of mississippi state flag is a way to keep that narrative alive and it is threatening because if we lose it, what happens to our memory? r young homeowners turning into their parents. you ever think about the storage operation a place like this must rely on? -no. they just sell candles, and they're making overhead? you know what kind of fish those are? -no. -eh, don't be coy. 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[daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. my name is william shirley. i serve in the mississippi house of representatives for district 84. about 16,000 people in the whole county. everybody knows everybody. you get a speeding ticket, everybody knows. i'm not here to argue the design of the flag. that is not my intent. some universities took the flag down. if you're a public university, then you should display whatever that symbol is. >> and do you think this is an issue that matters to the people in your district? >> yes, ma'am. >> why? >> well i just think it is a heritage, it is a history. there is a big movement to remove confederate history. well it is part of history, you know. where and when is enough? >> do you feel like slavery was something that was in the past, let's move on, or do you feel like slavery still has an effect today? >> it's over and it is part of history, it is part of the past. i don't know if a person that opens a slave or been a slave to this day. i think we're going to make it a major issue as long as we keep rubbing it in from the standpoint of the minorities saying, well we were slaves and mistreated. i understand that. what the hell do you want me to do about it? i'm sorry. i didn't -- i wasn't there. i'm 50 years old. i wasn't there. >> and what do you say to historically black universities that say we're not going to fly this flag because it is a symbol of slavery, do you think about their point of view? >> it is the state flag of mississippi. >> but if they say it actually hurts us, this deeply offends us, it represents something that gives us pain, what do you say to that? >> i don't see the pain in the symbol. >> new orleans is just the latest city to start taking down controversial monuments many say celebrates slavery and the confederacy. >> wore here to celebrate the taking down of the jefferson davis statue here in new orleans, tonight. these were all jim crow era statues meant to emphasize that white people are in control. >> is there any value in -- >> there is no value in keeping those statues. there is value in remembering what the statutes were put up for. >> what do you say to the people across the street marching with flags. >> i don't say nothing. they are not on my radar. they are unredeemable. >> we pray that those attacking our heritage may repent of their sins. we pray oh, lord that truth of history would triumph. >> i feel like the country never really reunified after the war in a way that included all of its citizens, right. maybe taking down these statues now could help us reunify. >> but don't try to take away history because if you don't agree with it and if you study history it was more than just slavery. there was taxation issues. >> is he putting on a bulletproof vest? >> probably. >> why? >> because there they firing paint ball at these guys the other night. sounds harmless, but who is to say that they don't try something more. a lot of these people from out of town. >> these are visitors from out of town. who are confederate supporters and they come here to occupy a sit for a couple of weeks and stand their ground and all that good stuff. >> but isn't the goal to have more people feel represented? don't we need to listen to each other? they say the statue is a source of southern pride. >> puck the south. -- southern pride. this comes from the racial of african-american's history, and blood lines and across families for hundreds of years for the upholding so if you can't balance that in your mind, then i can't do nothing for your lack of an iq or common sense. i'm sorry. >> this is not about race. i feel like we're having our history stolen from us. this is our only confederate president. he died here. >> we don't need of that in our diverse neighborhood. >> it is a symbol affecting you so gravely that you could not -- >> get the -- out of new orleans. >> dear god and heavenly father, we thank you for your love and your grace and your mercy and please bless us during the coming hour as we pay homage to our ancestors, the 15,265 souls that gave her life to defend the great state of mississippi. for christ's sake, amen. our next speaker is someone that i really appreciate and he's got backbone. and that is the kind of people we need. people who stand up and mr. william shirley of clark county, would you come say a few words. give him a hand. [ applause ] >> flag means a whole lot to me. you're not going to take the damn flag down with my vote. so i'm going to do all i can do and i suggest you find your legislator and make your ear known to him or her because we all in the mississippi house are going to get to vote on those amendments again and again and again and they're going to get tired of seeing men. they're going to try to get somebody to replace people like me that just don't go along with yes boss man. if you're taking state, you fly the flag of the state of mississippi. thank you y'all. >> can you come speak? >> political correctness is an incredibly dangerous doctrine. it is anti-intellectual. it is anti-dissent. it demands conformity. do you believe they're stop with a monument or a pattern or a design on a flag. they ridicule our traditions, they mock us, they laugh at us. you feel like your losing your country, don't you? you feel marginalized. you're scared. mississippi has to stand. we have nothing else to surrender. >> we are those warriors men and women of the civil war ready to push back one more time. help is not coming from california. it is not coming from massachusetts. it has to be you. what are you going to do about it? 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ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. how would you like to see uncle billy dance? >> at the end of the day, historical memory is always about who is controlling the story. and you got to do it in a society that has this horrible problem with racism. the theories of race that most white americans, north or south, still share. by the 1890s, in the north, there is a tremendous fear of a world that seems to be falling into disorder in these teaming new cities full of these people speaking unusual languages. maybe the race question should just be left to the south. they've also always known how to handle the race question. at the same time, there will be over 9 million african-americans mostly in the south. there is no longer the slavery system that kept us all contained. white southerns need to deep this population on the land as laborers, not engaging in educational advancement. they need a new system to keep them there. the solution in the south was a system of jim crow laws. everything from schools to voting to transportation, public accommodation, every element of life is now going to be segregated. lots of white americans north or south can unify around segregation as a way to keep society in social order. the way in which this culture became within the first half century after the war, an american north/south reunion without racial justice left a deep set of legacies we are of course still struggling with. and every time we think we have so much of this put aside, we suddenly are reminded that we don't. the only way today we'll see a new more inclusive reunion of americans is if there is a coalition of interest that stops looking only at their own individual interest and sees themselves in these four or five issues and sees themselves in other people. okay. >> we're just going to record this. and then if you could change the frame, too. there you go. >> if i were going to make a movie about you, what do you want me to make sure that i include? >> i want you to show, like, the great things that i'm capable of. like, yeah, i'm -- if i do say so myself, i'm a great football player. but i'm also smart in the classroom, i try to -- i'm just trying to be great in life. i'm trying to make something of my life, trying to be successful. >> to be honest with you, what i've been through, there are people that just look at the good things, but i'd rather you see that the negativity was. so it counteracts. it is like here is the bad but now here where i'm at i'm good now. i'm in a good zone. i was in -- you know what i'm saying. would you rather you not just tell half of my story. would you rather you tell the whole story. >> there was once a teacher described me as i think sympathetic. i thought she called me pathetic when she said that. >> it might have been empathetic. >> yeah. we all have feelings, we all have a history that nobody else knows about. yeah. >> i was certainly not taught this way in my high school. >> neither was i. >> i'm always shocked when i find a student of a certain age who haven't seen "gone with the wind." and i point them to it. >> it is most watched movie of all time. people are eating this stuff up. like there is a real reason why people have weddings on plantations, right. you would never go to auschwitz and be like let's get married. would you never do that. but we have so made black pain and suffering like a place of our enjoyment, a place that feels good to us. a place that feels familiar to us, that we don't pay attention to the suffering, we don't pay attention to why it is problematic. >> i know you talked about before in your presentation, but how do you define freedom for yourself? >> i have been conditioned to think of emancipation as an ending point. so i realize that freedom was not just liberation. freedom was like owning your humanity, operating in your full humanity, being recognized for your full humanity, i think that the spirit of slavery that i talked about before, that makes color a mark of degradation is still very much with us. and i think for too long the own us of racism has been put on people of color to solve. when this is not really like a people of color issue. this is a white supremacist issue where white people need to talk about other white people about how they could overcome these issues. white alleys today have to take a very radical stance in that he this can't just put up the bumper sticker of black lives patter, are you going to allow your child to be one of the few whites in an all black school, are you going to invest in that school making sure that not just your child but every child in that community gets a fair shake. to balance this great injustice that has taken place for hundreds of years, it requires sacrifice. ive don't know what will that look like for you or for every person. it is different, i think. i thik are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole. ibrance may cause low white blood cell counts that may lead to serious infections. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs. both of these can lead to death. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening chest pain, cough, or trouble breathing. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding. for more information about side effects talk to your doctor. ♪♪ be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance. with xfinity home, you can keep your home be in your moment. and everything in it more protected. i can wrangle all my deliveries. thanks, hoss! and i help walk the dog from wherever. *door unlocks* ♪ ♪ well, i can bust curfew-breakers in an instant. well, you all have xfinity home, with cameras to home security monitored by the pros. *laughs* learn more about home security or get our self-monitored solution starting at just $10 per month. this is pleasant gardens. this is where most of the african-americans in the city were buried. it was an operation from 1891 through 1970. one day you saw in the paper an article about an abandoned cemetery and so i thought i can't believe that there is a place here that is so rich with history and i didn't know about it so i used the map on the front of the newspaper and drove over to the cemetery and found this beautiful place and immediately felt the need to organize some community clean-ups to bring attention to it. many of the african-americans that are buried here were not slaves. and so they could be buried and recognized in different ways but there is a very interesting cemetery called beck knob cemetery that is located on the north side of the town and it he was a slave cemetery. and when you look at how overgrown it is, it is almost sad that you can almost drive past it and not even know it. >> would you take us there? >> i could take you there but i don't know how much you could see because it is really overgrown. >> wow! i knew i wasn't crazy look at how close this line it is to that. >> what has been the most important story that you've talked about in history class to far this year. >> well slavery was bad. we just still feel guilty because it is something that happened. >> but we interviewed a kid from astonia and has white skin and his family wasn't even here. should he feel guilty about it? >> well, if he's living in our country now, then i think he should feel a little guilt because it still part of his, part of his history because now he's part of our country and he should feel a little guilt, i think. >> is guilt useful? >> yes. >> tell me why. >> because it helps us understand that what we did was wrong and we shouldn't go back to doing it and we should fix our ways so we could do better in the future. >> i personally like think slavery is morally wrong. you should not own other people. that is not something that should happen. but i see the reasoning behind it and i can understand it and not accept it, but i guess see, like, behind it, i guess. >> i think a lot depends on whose eyes you're looking through, right? are we talking about a white point of view or a black point of view. a lot depends on who you are, i think. >> i want to know what was your perspective of the whole slavery situation, how you feel like, because you know you're being raised and how do you feel when people -- >> i feel like it was wrong. i feel like it was deeply wrong. but i also feel like i'm -- i never learned about slavery as a white story. i mean with people around me, we never talk about slavery as something white people did or benefited from, you know. it was always presented as something that just happened. >> i want to introduce abraham. you argue that the current thread of racism is more insidious now than it has been in the past. >> precisely. just as lincoln said that the nation will either become all one or all the other, meaning slavery or anti-slavery, i think it is the same thing for racism and anti-racism. >> if we see america's history of steady racial progress, that we have now reached the mountain top, racism is no longer critical and important, we're also saying the cause of racial inequities today is not racism because we've moved beyond racism. it is the inferiority of the particular people that are not working hard enough. there is a racist idea that it is still very prominent within the community of people that consider themselves liberal or progressive or radical. the thesis, first it was slavery making black people into brutes now it is poverty. this is idea that racism itself or discrimination wasn't just sort of harming people but it was literally leading to inferior behaviors. now they cbehaviors. with downy light in-wash freshness boosters. just pour a capful of beads into your washing machine before each load. to give your laundry a light scent that lasts longer than detergent alone, with no heavy perfumes or dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day! new downy light, available in four naturally-inspired scents. ♪ i'm steven, i'm 52, and i'm a makeup artist. i met my husband in 2002. ♪ i miss those eyes. do you think you could fall in love again? i'm so ready, you know? so, what do you see when you look at yourself? i see a really long life lived of vast experiences. botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow, eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects see for yourself at botoxcosmetic.com when you walk down the street, and people see you, what do you want people to think about you. do you think about that ever? >> i want them to think that i'm an intelligent girl and i'm not bad. i'm actually very good and i'm smart. >> what makes you very good? >> that i follow directions. well sometimes. >> what else? >> i want them to think that i'm not ugly. >> it seems to me that one of the major challenges for you was a history teachers would wo be teaching in a way that connects with such a diverse student body. >> yes, yeah it is. >> boston latin is like the nation in miniature because it is so new and it did start as a segregated all male institution. >> yeah. it is the oldest school in the country. it was founded in 1635 by a portion of the population of boston england. it was all male. it was all white. it was all people of privilege. >> you know, i've really come to believe that part of the purpose of history is to tell a story that unites us. >> yeah. >> but in order for thattory to work, we have to see ourselves as being in the same boat to begin with. >> yep. >> we have to see ourselves as connected to other people. >> i really agree. >> so in your class today, how do you tell a story that sees these kids as connected to all of the diverse people that surround them. >> it is important to talk about race and the history. and i want kids to understand that where we are today has its roots in the past. but it is really hard to convey the full scope of the way that the history of this country plays out today. and i think it is really difficult to talk about race. how do you actually help kids to be different than us, our generation, who doesn't really know how to do this very well. how do you -- the only way you do that is by having them do it. >> okay. i want to know what went into place after reconstruction. look at integration of schools, fair treatment by juries, right, those are the kind of things. how are we doing now? we'll put the school segregation folks in that corner, we'll put the jury selection folks in the back corner. >> i found that the 15th amendment gave african-american males the right to vote but they kept finding loopholes to keep them from voting and today 13% are prohibited from voting because they have served in prison. >> yeah. >> okay, well, i guess i'll say, i guess i think we're running out of time, but i just think talking about this is really not helpful because i mean what it does -- >> stitt still. >> it puts people in an unproductive mindset because it makes white people feel guilty and it makes black people feel like victims. >> don't go anywhere. and i want to know what people want to say back to that, because i think it is important that have a chance to say something. so i'm going to go with andrea first. >> if you're treated differently because of something you can't change, why wouldn't you be a victim. you don't have to talk about something to feel a certain way. >> and have you? >> yes. >> so i see all of these hands and we had a bell and i'm so sorry that we're going to have to stop this. but we will pick this up, look right where you are, see your hands in the air. this is where we start tomorrow. >> how did you feel about the conversation in section 41? >> terrified. >> the idea i wanted to dismantle is that there is, like, a system in place, like, that like benefits white people and like has a negative effect on black people. >> i don't want to squash this child. he's bringing sincere, you know, and rigorous, i think the word he used was logic, right, he's thinking about it logically and logic said that there has got to be a reason for that. but he doesn't have an answer when i say, so what might be the reason if you think it is not systemic racism that has caused this, systemic racism. he says i don't know. >> you shouldn't have something to blame your problems on. i don't think that's -- i don't think that's a good thing. asian americans here have a hard time. they still succeed. >> that's going to be continued tomorrow. i've got to spend my time thinking tonight what am i going to say that respects how hard this kid is thinking about these things which is exactly what i want him to do and industrial still push back a little bit and say you are missing some of the picture here in a really important way. important way. financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. (vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network. plus, we give you $200 in facebook ads on us! so you can reach more customers, create more opportunities, and finish this year strong. visit your local t-mobile store today. i gave you this document about the jim crow era written by ichelle alexander. how did they create a class based on race? >> in prison, they auctioned off the prisoners to the highest bidder. >> there was a loophole of slavery in the 13th amendment. did anyone catch that? >> they outlawed slavery. >> she was trying to say the criminal justice system is the same thing as jim crow, which is her point -- >> it is a new iteration of it. it is looking at the ways it is still with us. >> assuming jim crow has a presence today? >> it is. >> that's your assumption. that's not my assumption. asian americans are discriminated against when applying for colleges. they need 400 points higher. your mind is closed off to certain ideas. >> we'll continue. we will continue. i love that you hang in there. >> they're not willing to consider certain ideas. they are caught the certain ideas are not true at all. >> is the certain idea you are really suggesting is asians are better than black people. that's not what you are really saying, is it? >> i'm not saying inherently better, but their situation is better right now. >> what would you attribute that to? >> higher income. higher representation in colleges and in well paying jobs. >> why do you think that and why do you think black people don't? >> i don't know. asians are discriminated much more in those areas -- >> than black people? >> yes. >> we'll agree to disagree on that point, but we'll come back to it. >> i hope you look into it. >> i will look into it. good. thank you. >> it's a revelation to me that presenting no matter how much information you present, sdiems people are going to hear it the way they hear it and not budge. at least not yet, he's not. but that's exactly what you're in for when you open the door to having these kinds of conversations. that's what's hard to navigate. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> celebrating confederate heroes day. texas state holiday. celebrate on the 19th of january every year. >> the bill was filed by a representative by pensacola. it says a memorial cannot be moved unless it is refurbished. >> this monument in downtown pittsboro was given to the daughters of the confederate. >> a lot of ancestors of mine fought. they didn't die for slavery. they had no slaves. [ screaming ] [ cheering ] >> the story starts with seeing the monuments. it is also about being in this black body. what does that feel like to have your country, your nation say this is what we stand by? no. we want more. we demand more. we say yes to something that looks like us. we say yes to inclusivity. we say yes to broader notions of what it means to be an american. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ today on velshi, a new variant is causing markets to plunge. we will have the latest on the vaccines we have will protect you. the piece of the immigration story that america gets wrong and why it is about to cost us dearly. and three white men convicted of murdering ahmaud arbery this week. arbery's family and supporters rejoiced in defeating the lynch mob. is this the broader change of accountability? i'll put that to the lawyers i