that we were in some new era and we could put that behind us. and the truth is, the north won the civil war but the south won the narrative war and we had 100 years of racial apartheid and exclusion, lynching and lawlessness. we ended mob violence in the 1950s, to a large extent, but we didn t end the thinking that generated that. we passed these civil rights laws in the 1960s but we didn t overcome these presumptions of dangerousness and guilt, and i m not too ready to take a lot of credit because i think we have this long problem of celebrating too soon. i still live in a state, alabama, wherejefferson davis birthday, the president of the rebelling south, his birthday is still a state holiday. confederate memorial day is still a state holiday. are you. yeah. all right, so, powerful stuff. so are you, bryan stevenson, saying that white americans need notjust to acknowledge in a new and very different way the realities of their history, of the united states history, but they need to
of celebrating too soon. i still live in a state, alabama, wherejefferson davis birthday, the president of the rebelling south, his birthday is still a state holiday. confederate memorial day is still a state holiday. are you. yeah. all right, so, powerful stuff. so are you, bryan stevenson, saying that white americans need notjust to acknowledge in a new and very different way the realities of their history, of the united states history, but they need to go further? they actually need to take on a level of guilt. is that what you re saying? guilt is necessary? no. i think, first of all, i m not speaking just to white america, i think it s all america. this country is very diverse and there are all kinds of people who benefit from not dealing honestly with this legacy, so i think all of america has to be willing to tell the truth about this. we have some things we need to learn. and when you commit to truth and reconciliation,