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(Ominous music)

[Director] 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.

(explosion)

(drums)

- 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 a feeling
on both sides was so intense.

- We're all just romantics lost

in contemporary times,
you might say every one of us

feels like we born
125 years too late.

(slow music)

- To introduce myself,
my name is Rachel Boynton.

This is Nelson Walker.

We are independent
documentary filmmakers.

We're making a film about how we
tell the story of the Civil War.

We're filming in lots of
different schools

all over the country.

And going to places with a deep
connection to this history.

(loud cheering)

- There's a lot more coming.

[Student] What made you choose
the civil war

and reconstruction?

[Director] Well, you know,
America is kind of like a big

family that tore itself
apart during the civil 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.

[Student] What did you
want to do when you

were little and did you have

a backup for if you
couldn't get that?

[Director] When I was really
little, I wanted to be Superman.

When I got a little bit older, I
wanted to be an anthropologist.

Do you know what an
anthropologists is?

- No
- Somebody

who goes around the
world and studies the way other

people live like this.
- So like this?

[Director] Kind of like this.

Yeah.

[Isabel] People are
having to come

to grips with the civil war
and enslavement,

which are the sort of founding
bases of the country.

Our country is like
a really old house.

You may not want to go

into that basement,
but if you really don't go

into that basement,
it's at your own peril.

Whatever you're
ignoring will be

there to be reckoned
with until you reckon with it.

(ominous music)

(children talking)

[Instructor] These voices
were all happening

on the eve of the civil war.

I'm interested in what
you think about it.

I'm interested in who,
who's saying this.

And I'm also
going to give you

the secession documents
from South Carolina.

Where is he from?
What's what's he about?

Who is he?

[Student] He's a Philadelphia
congressman, I believe.

[Instructor] No, Ohio.
I think he's from Ohio.

So he delivers this when?

When is this written?
Because that's one of the

questions that I asked.
- December, 22nd, 1860.

[Instructor] Exactly.

And what is he basically saying?

- He doesn't
want secession

because he knows
if there is secession

there will be a huge war.

[Instructor] People will know
this war with their own eyes.

They will, you know, really
experience war amongst
ourselves.

He sounds scared, doesn't he?
[Student] Yeah.

[Instructor] Yeah.
I think he probably was.

What stood out to you
in the arguments?

[Student] So our article
was presented

by Alexander Stephens
in Atlanta, Georgia.

And not once does
he talk about

slavery, property
and what the war is really

about, what they're really
fighting for.

[Instructor] Other voices?
Yeah.

[Student] I noticed
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.
- Push back? Comments?

(school bell rings)

We will continue tomorrow.

(student chatter)

[Instructor] You are a thinker.

That is for sure.

The wedge is the slavery
issue, right?

I think we're agreed on that.

It's just a way
of describing it.

Yeah.
Good, good job.

Go, go, go.

[Director] You're
spending a lot of time

telling the story
of the Civil War

and 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 and we need to decide
what we think about them now.

It's challenging, but it's,
it's where the juice is.

(distant dog bark)

- We call it a war between
the states here.

We don't call it a civil war.

[Director] Why is it
important to cause

the war between the states?

- Because that's what it was.

It wasn't a civil war.

[Herb] Or the war of
northern aggression.

The North came down
here and divided us.

We didn't go up there.
- My grandmother was saying they

had to hide the food
in the chimney because

the soldiers came in,
would take everything they had.

They took all their livestock,
any food that was in the house.

It was terrible.

And the war took place
in our backyard.

But the people up north,
the war was a distant thing.

We're both members of the local
Sons of Confederate Veterans

and we are responsible for
taking care of this cemetery.

But I'm afraid when the Herb

are gone and our
generations, that it'll,

there's not gonna be anybody
around to take care of it.

[Herb] Or to promote
the true history

of the 1860-1865
period of time.

[Director] This class
that I'm filming,

the teacher is teaching the
cause of the war is slavery.

- Oh, really?

[Director] And so

does that offend you?
[Herb] Yes.

[Director] can you
explain to me why?

[Herb] Because it's not true.

You're telling stories
that aren't true about

my my ancestry, about my family,
about my country, the south.

[Director] And what's,
tell me what

the untrue thing is?
[Herb] Slavery.

They are not
telling the whole story.

Slavery was
one of the reasons.

But 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.

Because my home
was being invaded.

(somber music)

[Dr. Blight] The Confederacy
lost this war big time.

No Americans have ever lost

a war quite like
the Confederacy, lost this war.

(slow music)

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.

The slavery was not the great
issue. If it were 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,

and it wasn't just textbooks
they were trying to control.

It was the stories being widely
told in the public arena,

and they had
a tremendous influence.

So what is at stake
in the memory

of the American Civil War, is
who gets to control this
narrative?

The story.

[Director] Ok, wait. I've got
to move the microphone

before I get started.

Yeah.

Do you have any
questions for me?

[Student] I had one.
I forgot what it was.

Do you consider yourself
a radical person?

[Director] Am I a radical
person?

No, I'm not a radical person.
I think I'm someone

who questions things.
I'm questioning the stories we

tell, like in your class,
the story about slavery, right?

They tell us something
about why we're so divided.

Do you see us living
in a divided country?

- Every day.

(somber music)

(somber music)

(somber music)

(children chatter)

(children chatter)

[Student] The Holmes
Central High School creed.

I am a member of the Holmes
Central High School family.

Education first our motto.

[Instructor] The kids that I
have here are determined to not

follow in the footsteps
of what was in the past.

I'm hoping I can spark
something to say.

I want to know more.

I want to learn more.
[Director] In Mississippi,

do people talk about slavery
as the cause of the war?

[Instructor] You don't
really hear the word

slavery or slaves
in Mississippi.

That was an incidental
part of it.

I guess the simple
term is whitewash.

As I told my clients, is that

a lot of time you want to
see the good part

of the history,
especially the history that you

are 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.

[Director] So how do you tackle
the story of slavery?

[Instructor] One thing
is that, the slaves

were more powerful than
you give them credit for.

[Student] People say
that Lincoln freed

the slaves, but you say
actually they freed themselves.

[Instructor] That
was a question?

- Why couldn't
slaves free themselves

in a sense, before all of
this if they freed themselves?

[Instructor] We didn't have the
abolition. We we did have was

Nat Turner, you know, you had
those people who step forward.

Those people to me were
just as brave

as the 1960's,
probably more brave.

[Student] Come on.

[Instructor] Think about
Nat Turner.

[Student] Slave.
He's crazy.

To make a change, you got
to be a little crazy.

[Instructor] 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?

[Student] you expect for a
dude to be dead,

you expect our mother,
three kids, stuff like that

the pay, you got
him. If you want them,

he's dead.
He set the right tone.

You out here killing wives,
children. Oh yeah.

[Student] He probably was
a grumpy slave owner anyway.

[Instructor] Don't take for
granted the lives that were
lost.

Who was brave enough to try
to system when it's 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 and they
can't keep their memory alive.

Why can't we?

[Student] In Holmes County,

I noticed how we had
the Browns and the Williams.

I mean, we also had Caucasian
people with the same last name.

And I was I always
wondering, like,

is there a relation
between the two?

And then I learned that,

you know, slaves got their last
names from their slave owners.

So is like, did
this family own this

family or like did they? I
always wondered about that.

[Director] There's this
enormous history

of slavery in Holmes County.

Do people ever talk about that?
[Student] About?

[Director] Just the question
of the history of slavery here?

- No.

[Director] Do you know if your
ancestors were enslaved here?

- I don't know.

[Director] Would you
want to know?

- Not really.
[Director] Why?

- Because I don't
want to

think about what all they
went through for us.

[Director] How come?

- Because they
worked for all their life being

enslaved and not
being treated right.

They'll just bring

me down because they suffered
and I wish somebody could've

did something back then
to help them out.

[Director] And so you don't
want to think

about it because
it makes you sad.

- Mm hmm.

- I don't want
to hate people.

And I want to hate
people based on their

character towards me now,
not what they did

hundreds of years
to go or their family did

hundreds of years ago.

[Director] I think white
people are afraid

that it's going to make
them feel ashamed.

- Yeah,
I think so, too.

That's why it's, they probably
when they're teaching,

I know I keep going back to,
you know, the teaching. But it's

where it all starts
because I doubt you, if

a white man would tell his six
year old daughter,

we own slaves or we did
this to slaves or like,

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.

[Director] 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.

[Director] And why do
you think she would

want to avoid the conversation?

- It might hurt her,

she might feel mad about it.

[Director] It's hard to talk
about things like that.

- Yeah.

(slow music)

[Instructor] 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.

So when you throw slavery
in there, it complicates it.

It's not a football game.

This was real.

Most history classes we teach

that the winners write
history, the civil war,

the losers end up
writing the history.

When we look
at Southerners and how they try

to twist the narrative of what
happens, I want us to put

ourselves in their shoes
and look at why.

If you can teach empathy
when it comes to history.

I think it's such a powerful

thing for the rest
of your lives.

All right, boys, in your packet,

turn to new perspectives
on slavery.

What we've got here are
statistics about slavery.

And I want you to talk about
what jumps out at you.

[Student] It says about

like one point one million
Southern white families owned no

slaves and that only
about three hundred and fifty

a little over 350,000
owned slaves.

That's only like a fourth or

fifth, which actually
a pretty crazy statistic.

So a handful of people have,

you know, one like five slaves
that probably was just around

the household, which probably
were treated pretty well.

[Instructor] Well, it depends.

[Student] Of course, the
southerners were trying to,

you know,
I mean, they weren't treated

like regular humans,
but they they took care of them

because they were like
a way to make money.

[Instructor] Correct.
It's an investment.

That's my money.
I need to take care of my money.

I want that to keep
producing more money for me.

Therefore, I take care of it
and I don't take care of it

and provide. I mean, it's still
a dirt floor they sleep on.

You know, it's still I'm
working 10 to 12 hours.

It's not.

Let's look at 210,
whippings per person.

In the south,
where was the wealth?

So owning land
and owning slaves?

if I invested twenty three
thousand dollars in something,

I don't want to beat
it to a pulp.

Right?

So why do they do it?
[Student] Fear.

[Instructor] Fear, you hit
on it. That's the word.

Here's what American slavery is
about, money and fear.

They are making lots of money

and they are terrified of what
happens if this goes away.

What happens when people talk

about abolition
and emancipation?

What do I start
picturing in my head?

[Student] Getting lynched?
[Instructor] Yes, retribution.

They're going to come after us.

So you could look at and say,

you know, the situation's
not great, but

I don't want to get lynched.

I don't like people throwing
rocks through my windows.

(woman on tv) The violence.

Police officers pointed guns
into crowds of young people.

It was shocking to me.

Why are we still in a war in
this country over race?

- Slavery?
- 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 that we
hear say, 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, I'm more than you.

I'm better than you.
- Why? why? why?

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.

- I mean, they don't even
know that they're privileged.

I remember a book I read in
seminary.

- Excuse me. I don't buy that.

They don't
know they're privileged.

- They have a

well, no, I serve a congregation
of overeducated white people

who don't recognize
their privilege.

They don't see
that you start that.

It's just the norm.
It's their norm.

- If you don't feel that you
are privileged,

how do you account
for the differences between

white people and disadvantaged
black people?

- They're not comparing
themselves to black people.

Like my white friends are
mostly comparing 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 it.

- Well, I don't know why
they can't get.

- 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 Ok.

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 Ok.
- Don't prove it

just I think we've got to
educate.

We got to educate them.
- No, we don't.

- Well, I'm what I'm
saying is that

there's nothing wrong with
having a conversation...

[Instructor] Last night
I was at this dinner,

it was this conversation about

slavery being the source
of our racial problems.

The topic of white
privilege came up a lot.

You know, the idea of, you know,

white people have
advantages in this country

or,

yeah, I mean, advantages.

Or you could flip it around,
say black people have

disadvantages in this country
simply because of skin tone.

[Student] I feel like it kind
of goes both ways.

Sometimes white people
have a disadvantage.

I had a friend
a couple of years ago,

his cumulative GPA was
like a 4.26

and then he had a friend
that was black

that had like a 3.9
like a 33.

And they both applied

to Princeton
and the black kid got in.

I feel like everyone says, well,
there's a lot of white

privilege, so we have to give
other, like

other ethnicities advantages
in this place instead of trying

to view everyone as
just like an American.

[Student] I mean, just
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 that they should be
remembered because I think

they're an important lesson
that America isn't perfect

and to, like, work against
that in the future.

[Instructor] If you look
at things like

the incarceration rate for,
you know,

young black men in this country,
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.

It goes way back.

[Student] I think
there's a balance

between recognizing our past,

but also not over talking it
and just overemphasizing

the problem to where it's
always on our minds.

And then it's difficult to be
very equal when that's something

that's always on your mind,
is racism and things like that.

(somber music)

- So please welcome

Dr. Kelly Carter Jackson.

(applause)

[Kelly] 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?

I was like, oh, my God,
I tried really hard, you know,

to sort of like as a professor,
you have to, like,

fix your face before I
could answer the question.

He goes, oh, I remember.

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 really tries

to introduce new voices and
to highlight black abolitionist

in particular.

The moment the first black
person is enslaved,

they're pushing back. They're
collecting arms as much as they

possibly can to prepare for what
they believe is inevitable,

and that is the violent
overthrow of slavery.

- There seems to be a kind
of particular resistance

to teaching this aspect
of American history.

And, look and I think,
you know, I'm also a historian

I can understand.
I can dissipate why.

But I just want to get
you to talk about

it takes your book

to underscore force
as well as freedom.

You know,
and we all know that that's

a part of this history, but it's
not taught that way.

[Kelly] It's not taught,
I think,

because we have this
hypocritical, I think,

hypocritical 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.

(crew chatter)

[Director] so I want
to talk to you 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?

[Student] Yeah, my
daddy is that typical

Southern male,
a lot of he knows

everything and you
don't question him.

And, 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 and he would probably

like open the Bible and start

preaching at me and stuff
like that, I don't know.

[Director] How would he
find that offensive?

Well, my

great great grandfather did

fight in the Civil War
and he did come back like he

didn't die or anything.
He came back alive.

But it may set him up so bad.

And 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 details.

But

it's just like a remembrance
of how hard times were

at that time,
because it was really hard

for my family because we're
born and raised in Pontotoc,
Mississippi.

And like in my grandparents

house, there's a no telling
how old rebel

flag like in one of those
flag boxes like this.

And we don't,
you know, take it out.

We don't rub it
in people's noses.

It's just, you know,
up there above a cabinet.

(Rhythmic drum music)

- It has been called the war

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 shrines like

Gettysburg,
we memorialize the men of both

sides who gave of themselves
unreservedly for what they

believe to be right.
Remember and be proud.

[Dr. Blight] We've 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.

(somber music)

Why doesn't that Confederacy,

which only lasted four
years, just go away?

The racial reasons are
paramount, but it also has to do

with this idea that the
Confederacy was a decent.

Man, they went to the limit and

they deserved respect
for all that courage.

They claim after they've 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.

(upbeat music)

- James McGill,
he settled this farm almost 200

years ago, and I felt like I've
followed in his footsteps.

My wife raised the children.

All I ever did was work.

Of course, now, federal
government took my farm.

So

so I had it financed

with federal government,
farmers, home administration.

They wouldn't redo my loans.

During the war
and reconstruction.

People in the South
lost everything.

Well, I can empathize with them.

It made me mad and I couldn't
understand why they were mad.

And they and they spent 150
years and them

people are still mad
in the south about it.

It's wrong for the 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.

And 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 for it.

The war to prevent southern

independence changed our
country for the worse.

In my opinion.
- And what do you think?

Do you think the war changed
the country for the worse?

- I'm trying to process
everything.

I do understand

parts of what my father's
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 take
to free the slaves?

How long would it have taken

for them to realize
that slavery is wrong?

[Director] Do you
think slavery left

an imprint on the mindset
of people in America?

- Sure.
It left an imprint, but

I'm saying the war left
more of an imprint.

That's my personal opinion.
[Director] For black and white?

- Yes.

[Director] So you feel
like the war itself

was a bigger aggression
than slavery?

- Yes.

[Director] It feels like
you're dismissing

the experience of millions
of enslaved people.

It feels like you're
not seeing 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
that it was legal.

It was a settled way of or they
had laws that they

had to live up to and forced
on them and treat them like

civilly.
I don't hate James McGill.

I just want our schools
and universities to stop

teaching our children to hate
our southern ancestors.

They don't deserve that.

(ominous music)

[Director] Do you know what
the Confederate flag looks like?

[Student] Yes, it has a cross
and it's red, white and blue

with stars going
through the cross.

[Director] Where have you
seen that flag?

- I see it
when I'm driving,

when I'm traveling,
I see at, where I live,

I live in the countryside,
and the countryside

I travel to Greenwood and it's

white people back
there, there's no black people.

And I see a lot of Confederate

flags that hang out the houses
to hang out the mailboxes.

I see it on the back
of people trucks.

[Director] And what does
it make you think?

- Grow up.

Basically.

[Director] In class, you said
you were a good public speaker.

- Yes, I am.

[Director] What makes
you a good speaker?

- My projection,
my performance.

When I speak,
I capture your attention.

I know that I capture attention.

I do oratoricals. I've
won first place in

five, six oratoriclas. That's
all of them I

competed in and I won
second place once.

[Director] I hadn't
noticed any white kids

at the school, are there any
white kids at this school?

- No.
[Director] Why is that?

- I would say,
in my personal opinion,

I don't know if this why,
but I will simply say

the fact of segregation like is,
is how we are here, like.

It just socially happened like
this is the black kids school,

Central Holmes is the
white kids school,

that's just how
the neighborhood,

that's how the parents
separated everything.

[Director] Have you ever had
a white friend?

- No.

No, I've never, I've never.

Been around a white person
long enough. I've never had

a complete conversation
to even become associates.

[Director] Do you
think that the civil

war was relevant to your life?

- I feel that
it's relevant because

your past, your
history is your story.

Whether or not you know or
not, it's your story.

(children chatter)

(dramatic music)

- These are the 209,145
African Americans

in the union army,
that fought in the Civil War.

They served in every branch
in the Army. 142 Color

Infantry Regiments,
7 Color Calvary Regiments,

13 Color Artillery Regiments,
and it's color pioneer
regiments.

They looked at each as family
because if you serving

for three years, all you
have is your comrades,

(marching count)

- your left, your left, right.

Who's on your left.

Your left,

your left, your left, right.
Your left,

your left,

your left, your left, your left,
right.

Company, halt.

So this is the African-American
Civil War Museum.

The monument and museum

were built to correct
a great wrong in history.

America has wrote
a history about

that whole conflict that did not
include African-Americans

and these African-American
soldiers and their great role

in ending that war
to preserve the nation

and enslavement here
in the United States.

The war started,
but for two years,

President Lincoln wouldn't
let blacks join the army.

Well, once he realized he
couldn't win this war without us

then the war starts to change
in Lincoln's favor.

150,000, they were enslaved,
living in those southern states.

They literally end up

with uniforms on and rifles
in their pockets.

So if you're thinking
to yourself, I live in a world

that's out of control
and there's nothing I can do

about it. Well, there is
something you can do about it
and you can

take lessons from these people
whose stories we tell here

in this museum.
I think it's liberating.

[Director] We're making
this film about how

we tell the story
of the Civil War.

And I think you guys just
finished that unit, right?

[Student] yeah.

[Director] What did you think?

[Student] You know, I feel like
it's living in this country is

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.

And I think it's important
that we learn about it.

But 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 dialog

and understanding like
people who have different views

than you, which is, I think,
how we can move forward.

Um, 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 big
that's the biggest one.

[Director] It's like you're not
getting fully seen.

- Right, yeah.

[Dr. Blight] Reconstruction has
been the most

contested question in America's
historical memory.

Reconstruction is a period

of time that begins immediately
after the war,

a 10 to 12 year era when America
had to truly reinvent itself.

Fourteenth Amendment puts equal

protection of the law
into the U.S. Constitution.

And the right to vote for black
men in the 15th Amendment was

a constitutional and legal
revolution,

and some black spokesmen
by the 1890s and the turn

of the 20th century would often
refer to 1865 as the year zero

of a new calendar, a new
beginning to history itself.

But you have to incorporate

the white south
into an American union,

a society
that had just lost approximately

18 percent of its adult
male population in war.

How do you reunify those people

at the emotional level with
the side that is the victor?

- We're having our monthly
Civil War roundtable,

we call ourselves the
East Bridgewater Civil War

Roundtable, named after a town.
- We sent 300 men from this
town.

- I think it was four.
- Closer to 400.

- 50 of them died. The basis
of our meeting tonight.

We call it reconstruction.

You know, what went right
and what went wrong.

All right.

Holy mackerel.
Hello.

Hello.
What a crowd.

We're going to talk about
reconstruction,

the physical period of time
from from 1865 to 1877.

You know, in the school system,
we came to reconstruction

and the chapter ended
on the Civil War.

- How are you going to rebuild
this part of the country

with malice towards...
as Lincoln's words.

How are you going to do that?

- No one on the civilian side
on the Confederate presidency

was ever forced to concede and
repudiate what they believed.

And we allowed a group of people
that waged an armed insurrection

against their government to
build statues to their heroes.

So that has kept it alive.

We have never solved the core
problem, the civil war.

And that's 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 middle

of the room, north and south
were racists, period.

The black was not considered
to be a human being.

- How are ya?

[Director] Excuse me, I have a
question.

Have you ever had

an African-American
member in this group?

Because it struck me

in the conversation about
race that everyone was white.

- No, we haven't.
- Have you looked at

the demographic of east
Bridgewater and the area?

- Where in the 90s,

which is well,
which is an odd thing because we

live, we border Brockton,
which is predominantly

minorities, which are
really the majorities now.

I mean, how do you reach
out to say that they're welcome?

Well, I mean, they're welcome,
but how do you

make them feel that
they're welcome?

I mean, here I think we'd
make them feel welcomed.

How do you how do you do that?

I mean, yeah,
that's a good question.

I'll have to think about that.

The same question is why we live
right next to Brockton and we

don't have a large
population of blacks.

- I live in the town of Kingston
and there's not a large

population of blacks
in the town of Kingston.

You know,

the Silverlake Regional High
School is the fourth or fifth

largest diversified high school
with, you know, 1500 kids in it.

I mean, there are
a few families.

But why? Yet,
you go into Brockton

or you go into New Bedford or
Fall River, the cities,

you tend to find a larger
minority community.

Is it because those minorities

feel more comfortable there?
You know?

I don't know.

I don't have the answers.

* Facing the rising sun *

* of our new day begun *

* let's us march on
til victory is won *

Woo!

[Greg] At the end it says
shadow beneath our hand

may be forever stand,
true to our God,

true to our native land.

See, these guys were tricky.
By native land

what were they talking about?
[Student] Us.

[Greg] Us, our land?

Meaning what? What does
us mean to you?

What was reconstruction?

When was it? After slavery.
Yes.

- After the Civil War.
- After the Civil War.

This was when
black people tried to teach

America how to have a real
democracy during reconstruction,

black people were able to vote
in the South and they got

in the state legislators
and passed laws

to say things like, everybody
should go to school for free.

And they say white people too?

Yeah, white people,
you poor white people.

This man right here,

John Mercer Langston, came
out of slavery in Virginia.

He came to D.C.
as a congressman from Virginia.

This man was born into slavery.

You know, he's crazy.
I got seen, no problem, I'll

be back. You know, I mean,
it's Congressman Langston now.

That's 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

an associate professor and chair
of the Department

of Afro-American Studies
here at Howard University.

[Director] And what connection
do you have to the history,

to the history of the civil
war and reconstruction?

[Greg] Well,

in addition to the direct
history, my ancestors have

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 civil war,

my family
sharecroppers come in the areas

of Jim Crow, Great Migration
moving throughout the south.

You know, I'm a living part
of that stream of history.

And as a professor here
at Howard University

and particularly in Africana
studies, which is my field

of study in the area I work in,
devote a great part of my work

to understanding
the implications of the civil

war and reconstruction in terms
of contemporary American life.

What's this right here?

[Students] Deed of sale.

[Greg] Deed of sale.

These are reconstruction
era documents.

Most people in the country
don't know anything about that.

So you can say, oh,

we saw the charter, we saw
the deed of sale for the land.

[Director] You know,

you're the only teacher I filmed
who's focused on the freed

people's point of view when
teaching reconstruction.

How does teaching

from that point of view make
a difference for your students?

[Greg] What I hope
they will walk out

with a sense of human purpose
that they have a stake in.

There's always the threat

of forgetting in terms
of national memory.

When you start talking about
a settler state like

the United States that came out
of a settler colony with many

different people,
there's almost a required

forgetting of violence,
of forgetting in order 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 of black people.

Also, break your heart.

(slow music)

- My name is Brother Rogers,
I work at the

Mississippi Department
of Archives and History.

I created a website

with a picture of every
historical marker in the state.

[Director] Have you taken a

picture of the Clinton
riots marker?

[Rogers] I have taken a picture
of that marker.

I know exactly where it is
near the railroad track

in Clinton.
[Director] That's right.

And what do you think?

Tell me what you're, tell me

what do you know
about that marker?

- Well, I
think that the Clinton

riot marker is particularly
important because there was

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 underappreciated historical

eras. And the people
who wrote about it

afterwards, North and South
wrote about it mainly

from a white supremacy point
of view, whether they were in

Ohio and Michigan or
Alabama or Mississippi.

There was lots of violence
throughout America,

during reconstruction
against African-Americans.

It's a terrible time in our
history from that perspective.

It's a great time again

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.

[Director] Are there
any other markers

in Mississippi
that acknowledge

white violence against
African-Americans?

- The only marker of
which I am aware that exist,

that depicts and talks about
white violence against black

people during reconstruction
is the Clinton riot marker.

[Director] In Mississippi?
- In Mississippi.

- My name is Missy Jones.

My title is a Visiting

Instructor of History
at Mississippi College.

[Director] How long have you
been working on the Clinton
riot?

- Almost 15 years now

if I think back.

[Director] What is this?

- This is Johnson
Milling Company,

it's 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 diorama behind me

tells a version of those events.
The original train depot is

where white paramilitary
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 liner's began to flood
into Clinton and then

systematically round up those
who organized the rally and then

kill them, sometimes in front
of their own family members.

[Director] So this is
a group of white

Democrats killing the black
Republicans?

[Missy] 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.

[Director] 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's been told

as if it was caused
by African-Americans. That they

were going to take back
the city, accost the women.

For essentially one hundred
and forty years,

the history was told incorrectly
and the violence was blamed

on the black members
of the Clinton community.

- Hi, my name is
James Robinson.

I'm from here in Clinton.

Lifetime residence, except
for a few years.

- I'm Deborah.

James is my cousin.

- This picture here, Sara Lee,
my grandmother's grandmother.

When she was caught
in the proximity of the

Clinton riot in order
to save her child.

She hid the child in a tree.

And then after the
skirmish was over,

then she went back
and and got the child.

As the article says,

old Clinton history told
from Tales by Ex Slave.

This was published
in the newspaper in 1961.

- As far as the black
citizens in Clinton,

you don't hear
a lot about our history.

And a lot of times 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.

[Director] And what's
the result

of stirring up emotions?

- You get a lot of good
and you get some bad.

[Director] What's the bad?

- The fact that somebody could

vandalize if you put up
anything.

- I just hope that that
doesn't happen in Clinton.

There's 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 nigger.

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.

[Director] 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,
my mom's family was from

South Mississippi.
90 percent white,

10 percent 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 think

they want to repeat that.

I feel responsibility
with a profession that I've

chosen to tell things
accurately and to not

repeat generational

umm

incorrectness

with my own family. I want
to do something different.

[Student] Why are you passionate
about this project?

Just like what drives you
with making this documentary?

- You know, I didn't
start as passionate.

I started as curious.
- Yeah.

- And I had this sense
that there was something

missing in the story
that I had been taught.

And it's only through

the making of this film
that I've really come to see

that that story
was totally white.

I used to think that white
supremacy means a bunch

of guys in white robes,
but it really means not even

recognizing that we're only
telling white stories.

(southern instrumental music)

[Dr. Blight] During the
reconstruction era,

there's fear
all over the place.

White fear of those black

majority populations, if they
really vote, was colossal.

So many white Southerners saw

this idea of black people
serving on juries,

of black people owning land
as an intolerable revolution.

And it necessitated
a counter-revolution,

even if it necessitated the
use of 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 Southerners
developed, this story

for their explanation of their
defeat became ultimately

a victory narrative.
Victory over reconstruction.

And they crushed the very idea
of slavery as the central

cause and the very idea
of emancipation of four

million slaves as the central
result of the civil war.

You begin to see wide scale,
even official efforts to crush

what we might call
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's a flag
for everybody,

black and white,
representing our heritage.

Can understand to some degree

how they would have
been upset years ago.

That's been one hundred
and thirty years ago now.

To me, it's our flag.

(crowd chanting)

- White only, no blacks!

Send them home!

[News Reporter] Breaking news,
a horrific scene

in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A white nationalist 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.

[Director] Tell me your name.
Who are you?

- I'm Stephanie Rolph and I'm
an assistant professor

of history at Millsaps College
in Jackson, Mississippi.

The images that we're seeing

on our computers and on our
phones and on television,

you can't divorce this
from the need to return

to some sort of
innocent past.

[Director] Like the old South?

- Yes.

[Director] What is the
old South?

- After the Civil War?

The old South myth is this
mythologized place of

big plantation houses

with Corinthian columns and
mint juleps and hoop skirts

and Southern gentleman
and happy slaves.

Everyone is well
taken care of.

Some people are owned by other
people, but everyone is well

fed, well clothed,
loved and appreciated.

And that is not--

this is why something like
this would appeal to white

northerners,
because that's not

the environment
that they lived in.

[Director] It's really a story
about the

merits of white supremacy.

You know,
I filmed with another

historian who said that it was
really white supremacy

that helped the north and the
south reunify after the war.

Do you think that's 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's 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 1930's,

people from all over
the country are coming

to places like Natchez,
Mississippi,

to tour antebellum homes
and to see women in

hoop skirts and people dressed
up as enslaved persons.

This is a vacation for them.

Can you think of a cultural
footprint of this today?

Where the South gets sort
of fetishized?

- Grades second through fifth,
like we used to go almost

every year to the
Destrehan Plantation.

- And what does that
tour include?

- It included tours
of the plantation.

They also had a little show
put on, people dressed up

and stuff, and they sang
songs, played music.

It was like a, it's almost
like a little party.

- Are the tours in any way
engaging enslavement?

- They don't really talk
about the slavery part.

You might have a good time
because, I used to look

forward to going
to the plantation.

It was a big deal.

- I mean, can we even think

about these plantations
as spaces of violence?

When we think about things
like Confederate monuments or

symbols and flags,
all of these remembrances

on white visions, those 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's threatening because

if we lose it,
what happens to our memory?

(quiet thoughtful music)

- 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 receiving state

dollars and you're a public
university, then you should

display whatever
that symbol is.

[Director] 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's a
heritage, it's a history.

There's a big movement to
remove Confederate history.

Well, it's part of history.

You know,
where and when is enough?

[Director] 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's part of the past.
I don't know of a

person that owns
a slave or has 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 minority 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 wasn't there.
I'm 50 years old.

I wasn't there.

[Director] And what do you say
to historically black

universities that say, we're
not going to fly this flag

because it's
a symbol of slavery?

Do you think about
their point of view?

- It is. It's a state flag
of Mississippi.

[Director] But if they say
it actually hurts us,

it deeply offends us,

it represents something
that gives us pain.

What do you say to that?

- I don't see the pain
in in the symbol.

(chanting and sirens)

- New Orleans is just
the latest city

to start taking
down historical,

but controversial
monuments that many say

celebrates slavery
and the Confederacy.

- White supremacy!
- Must go!

- When?
- Now!

- When?
- Now!

- All right! All right!

We're here to celebrate
the taking down

of the Jefferson Davis statue
here in New Orleans Center.

These were all Jim Crow era
statues meant to emphasize

that white people
were in control.

[Director] Is there any value--

- There is no value
in keeping those statues.

There is value in remembering

what these statues
were put up for.

(people yelling)

- What do you say to the
people across the street

who are marching with flags--

- I don't say nothing

to the people across
the street who are marching.

They are not on my radar.
They are unredeemable

as far as I know.

- We pray, oh Lord, that
those who are attacking

our heritage may
repent of their sins.

We pray, oh Lord,

that the truth of history
would triumph.

[Director] I feel like
the country never

really reunified after the war

in a way that included all
of its citizens, right?

Like maybe taking down these

statues now could
help us reunify.

- But don't try to take away

history just because you
don't agree with it.

And if you really
study history,

you'll see there's more...
It was more than just slavery.

There was taxation issues.

[Director] Hold on.
Is he putting on a--

a bulletproof vest?

- Probably.
- Why?

- Because they were firing

paintball at these
guys the other night.

Sounds harmless,

but who's 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 city for a couple
of weeks and stand their

ground and all
that good stuff.

[Director] But isn't
the goal to have

more people feel represented?

I mean, don't we need
to listen to each other?

They said the statue's
a source of Southern pride.

- Fuck the south.
Fuck Southern pride.

Umm

The source of all of this
tension and anger comes

from the erasure
of African-Americans, history,

bloodlines, culture,
families for hundreds of years

by way of this thing
that they're upholding.

Ok, so if you can't balance

that in your mind,
then I can't do anything

for your lack of an IQ
or common sense.

I'm sorry.

- It's not about race.

This has never
been about race.

I feel like we're
having our history

stolen from us.

This was our only
Confederate president.

He died here.

- You don't need
to have that in

our diverse neighborhood.

- How is a inanimate
object like a symbol,

affecting you so
gravely that you

cannot see a [inaudible].

(crowd starts chanting)

* Get the fuck out
of New Orleans *

* Get the fuck out
of New Orleans *

- I pray for America.
I really do.

(crowd cheering)

- Dear God, our
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 fifteen thousand two
hundred and sixty five souls

that gave their life to defend
the great state

of Mississippi.
For Christ's sake, Amen.

(all)
- Amen,

- Our next speaker is
someone that I really

appreciate and he's
got backbone.

And that's the kind of people
we need, people to stand up.

Mr. William Shirley
of Clark County,

would you come
say a few words?

Good man!
- Yeah!

(clapping)

- 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 them

amendments again
and again and again.

And they're going to get
tired of seeing me.

And they're going to try

to get somebody to replace
people like me that just don't

go along with y'alls boss man.

If you're taking state

dollars, you fly the flag
of the state of Mississippi.

(clapping)

Thank y'all.

- I'm gonna let our
Mississippi Senator

McDaniel come
up and speak.

(clapping)

- Political correctness

is an incredibly
dangerous doctrine.

It's anti intellectual.

It's anti decent.
It demands conformity.

Do you believe they'll stop
with a monument?

Do you believe they'll
stop with a pattern

or design on a flag?

They ridicule our traditions.

They mock us,
they laugh at us.

You feel like you're 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 soil,
stubborn, courageous.

We stand here on the edge

of history, ready to push
back one more time.

Help's not coming
from California.

It's not coming
from Massachusetts.

It has to be you.

What are you going
to do about it?

(dramatic music swells)

- How would you like to
see Uncle Billy dance?

(children clapping)

(harmonica music)

(tap dancing)

[Dr. Blight] 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.

(dramatic music)

By the 1890's
in the north,

there's a tremendous fear
of a world that seems to be

floating into disorder
in these teeming new cities

full of these immigrants
speaking unusual languages.

Maybe the race question should
just be left to the South.

They've always known how
to handle the race question

at the same time,
there will be over nine

million African-Americans,
mostly in the South.

There's no longer the slavery

system that kept
this all contained.

White Southerners need to keep

this burgeoning black
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 schooling

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.

(crowd yelling)

The only way today we'll see
a new, more inclusive reunion

of Americans is if there's
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.

Ok.

[Director] We're just
going to record

the sound of the
room a little bit.

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 if I
do say so myself, I'm a great

football player, but I'm
also smart in the classroom.

I try I try to be-- 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 who just look

at the good things,
look at the good things,

but I'd rather you see
what the negativity was.

So it's like it counteracts
it's like here's 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? It's more like I'd

rather you not just tell half
of my story, I'd rather

you tell the whole story.

- There was this one where a
teacher once described me as

I think it was sympathetic.

I thought she called me
pathetic when she said that.

[Director] It might have
an empathetic.

- Empathetic, yeah.

At the end of the day,
it's just like

you know, we all
have feelings.

We all have like a history
that nobody else knows about.

Yeah.

(thoughtful music)

- I was certainly not taught
this way in my high school.

(all laugh)

So--
- Neither was I!

- I'm always shocked when I
find students of a certain age

who haven't seen
Gone with the Wind.

And I point them to it.

You need to watch that film.

[Kelly] It was the most watched
movie of all time.

People are eating
this stuff up

like there's a real reason why

people have weddings
on plantations.

Like you would never,
you would

never go to Auschwitz and be
like, let's get married.

Like you would 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's problematic.

- I know you talked about
the force 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 realized that freedom
was not just like 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 onus of racism has been

put on people of color
to solve when this is not

really like a people
of color issue.

This is like a white

supremacist issue where white
people need to talk to other

white people about how they
can overcome these issues.

White allies today have

to take a very radical stance
and that they can't just,

you know, put up
the bumper sticker.

Black Lives Matter.

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 like this

great injustice that's taking
place for hundreds of years

it requires sacrifice.
I don't know what that will

look like exactly for you
or for each person.

It's different.
I think the...

(reflective music)

- This is Pleasant Gardens.
This is where most

of the African-American
in the city were buried.

It was an operation
from 1891 through 1970.

Well, one that I saw
in the paper, an article about

an abandoned cemetery,
and so I thought,

I can't believe that there's
a place here that's so rich

with history and I
didn't know about it.

And so I use 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

cleanups 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's a very interesting
cemetery called

Beck Knob Cemetery

that's located on the
north side of the town.

And it was a slave cemetery.

And when you look
at how overgrown it is,

it's almost sad that

you can almost drive past it
and not even know it.

[Director] Would you
take us there?

- Yeah, I could take
you there,

but I don't know how much

you'll be able to see because
it's really overgrown.

(truck engine roaring)

Wow.

(truck engines)

I knew I wasn't crazy.

Look how close this
line is to that.

(peaceful music)

[Director] What has
been the most

important story that you've

talked about in history
class so far this year?

- Well, slavery was bad.

We should still feel guilty

because it's something
that happened.

[Director] But we
interviewed a kid

from Estonia and he 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's still
part of his, it's still part

of his history,
because now he's part of our

country and he should
feel a little guilt,

I think.

[Director] 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 can
do better in the future.

- I personally, like, slavery
is morally wrong.

Like you just shouldn't
own other people.

That's 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.

[Director] 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, like,
what was your perspective

of the whole
slavery situation and how you

feel like, because you you
know, you being, you were

raised, like how do you feel
when people--

[Director] I feel like
it was wrong.

I feel like it
was deeply wrong.

But I also feel like

I never learned about
slavery as a white story.

I mean, most people around me,
we never talk about slavery as

something white people did
and benefited from, you know?

It was always just presented

as something
that just happened.

[Dr. Blight] I want to introduce
Ibram Kendi.

Ibram, you argue
that the current

threat of racism is more

insidious now than it
has been in the past.

[Ibram] Precisely.

Just as Lincoln said

that the nation will either
become

all one or all the other,

meaning slavery
or antislavery.

I think it's the same thing
for racism and anti-racism.

If we see America's history
of steady racial progress

that we have now reached
the mountaintop,

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's the inferiority

of particular people that are
not working hard enough.

(introspective music)

There was a racist idea
that is still very prominent

within the community of people
who consider themselves

liberal, even progressive
or even radical.

The oppression
inferiority thesis.

First, it was slavery making
black people into brutes.

Right now, it's poverty.

This idea that racism itself

or discrimination
wasn't just sort of harming

people, but it was literally
leading to inferior behaviors.

(introspective music)

[Director] 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.

[Director] What makes
you a very good?

- That I follow directions.

Well, sometimes.

[Director] What else?

- Um, I want them to think
that I'm not ugly.

(quiet music)

[Director] It seems
to me that one

of the major challenges

for you was a history teacher
would be teaching in a way

that connects with such
a diverse student body.

- Yes.
Yeah, it is.

[Director] Boston Latin
is kind of like

the nation in miniature

because it is so old

and it did start as

a segregated all
male institution.

- Yeah, it's the oldest school

in the country.
Was founded in 1635 by

a portion of the population
of Boston, England.

It was all male,
was all white.

It was all
people of privilege.

[Director] 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 that story to work,
we have to see ourselves as

being in the same
boat to begin with.

- Yeah.

- We have to see ourselves as
connected to other people.

- I really agree.

[Director] So in your
class today,

how do you tell a story

that helps these kids see
themselves as connected to all

the diverse people
that surround them?

- Well, it's 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's really hard to convey
the full scope of the way

the history of this
country plays out today.

And I think it's 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.

Ok, I want to know what went

into place after
reconstruction.

Look at integration

of schools, fair
treatment by juries.

Those are the kinds 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

- With the black voting race,
I found that the 15th

Amendment,
it gave African-American males

the right to vote,
but they kept finding

loopholes to keep
them from voting.

And today, 13 percent are

prohibited from voting because
they have served in prison.

- Yeah?
- Ok, umm

well, I guess I'll say I guess

I think we're running out
of time, but I, I just think

talking about this is
really not helpful because

I mean, what it does is--
(school bell rings)

- Sit still.
- It puts people in an

unproductive
mindset, because what it does

is 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's

important that you have
a chance to say something.

So I'm going to go
with Andriana first.

- Like, if you're treated

differently because of
something you can't change,

why wouldn't you be a victim?

Like you don't have to talk

about something
to feel a certain way.

[Student] Have you?
- Yes.

- So I see all 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?

Put your hands in the air.

This is where we
start tomorrow.

[Director] How did you
feel about the

conversation in
Section 41 today?

(gasps)

(nervous laughter)

- Terrified.

- The idea I wanted
to dismantle

is that there's like a system

in a 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, you know,

bringing sincere,
you know, and rigourous.

He's I think the
word he used was

logic.

He's thinking about
it logically.

And logic says that there's
got to be a reason for that.

But he doesn't have an answer
when I say, you know,

so what might be the reason if
you think it's not systemic

racism that has caused this,
what what is the reason?

And he says, I don't know.

- You shouldn't have something
to blame your problems on.

And I don't think that's--

I don't think that's
a good thing.

Asian-Americans here,

they have a hard time,
but they still succeed.

- That's going to be
continued tomorrow.

And 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 still push back
a little bit and say,

you know, so I think you're
missing some of the picture

here in a really
important way.

I gave you this document about
the Jim Crow era,

which was written by Michelle
Alexander in her book.

So as you're reading through
that, I want you thinking,

how did they recreate a lower
class based on race

after reconstruction?

- Black people in prison,
they auctioned off

the prisoners
to the highest bidder.

- There was a loophole about
slavery in the 13th Amendment.

Did anyone catch that?

- They outlawed slavery,

but it was fit
as a punishment for a crime.

- What she's trying to say is
that the criminal justice

system, it's literally like
the same thing as Jim Crow,

which is her point.

[Instructor] I think you would
say a new iteration of it.

That's what we're really
trying to look at,

is the ways
that that is still with us.

- That's assuming
Jim Crow has a--

[Instructor] A presence today?

- Yeah, that's your assumption.
- It is.

- That's not that's
not my assumption.

Asian-Americans are routinely

discriminated against when
applying for colleges.

They have to get about like

400 SAT points higher
than black people.

And also they're discriminated

against when they're
applying for jobs.

(school bell rings)
Your mind is so closed off

to certain ideas.
(students laugh)

- We'll continue.

We will continue.

I love that you hang in there.

- They're not willing to
consider certain ideas

because they've been taught to

[crosstalk]

- Yeah, but is the certain
idea that you're really

suggesting that Asians are
better than black people?

That's not what you're
really saying, is it?

- I mean,

I'm not saying they're
like inherently better.

I'm just saying their
situation is better right now.

- But what would you
attribute that to?

- Higher income,
higher representation

in colleges and in uhh--

- But why do you think
they have that?

And why do you think
black people don't?

- I don't know, I mean,
Asians are discriminated much

more in those areas
because--

- Than black people?
- Yes.

- We'll agree to disagree
on that point,

but we'll come back to it, Ok?

- Ok.
- All right.

- Well, I hope you, I
hope you look into that.

- I will look into it.
Good.

Thank you.

It's a revelation to me
that presenting,

no matter how much information
you present, sometimes

people are going to hear it
the way they want to hear it

and they're not going
to 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.

(quiet music)

- We're celebrating
Confederate Heroes Day,

it's a Texas state holiday

celebrated on the 19th
of January every year,

which is also
Robert E. Lee's birthday.

- The bill was filed by a
representative from Pensacola.

It says that a memorial can't

be moved unless it needs
to be refurbished.

- This monument right here

outside the old courthouse
in downtown Pittsboro was

given to the county by the

Daughters of the Confederacy
back in the early 1900's.

- I'm in favor of the
statues staying.

A lot of ancestors of mine
had fought and died.

And they didn't
die for slavery.

They had no slaves.

(applause)

(crowd chanting and yelling)

[Crowd] Pull! Pull!

(crowd yelling and cheering)

(applause)

- Story starts with seeing
the monuments,

but it's 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.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)