As our reckoning with racial injustice continues on the world stage, history is most vividly in the present.
Removing statues and renaming streets are beyond symbolic gestures, it is confronting the past with respect to the present and future. Timothy Crimmins, Georgia State University professor emeritus of history, was chair of the commission on the preservation of the Georgia Capitol and co-author of “Democracy Restored, A History of the Georgia State Capitol.”
He joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about statues and monuments here in Atlanta — and the history behind them.
“These are not innocuous symbols. It’s a version of history that was advanced as an effort to suppress the rights of African Americans,” Crimmins said.
He had this to say when asked about the difference, if any, between a monument, memorial or a statue: “I think of them as being one and the same. What you have is an outburst of public sentiment that leads to the effort to raise the money to create a memorial or a monument.”
