Make It Plain with Mark Thompson

Confederate monuments are coming down every day in this country, but as Connor Towne O’Neill details in his book “Down Along With That Devil's Bones,” we’re still fighting a “Cold Civil War,” where monument removal is a change that is important symbolism but does not get at the systemic problems. Connor became invested in the conversations and arguments happening around Confederate monuments when he moved to Alabama and came upon a memorial for Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate Army general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan--a man whose 200th birthday was just celebrated by Neo-Confederates this past summer. Connor shares the story of who Forrest was, the role he played in the Civil War, and why he’s still a hero to some racist white southerners today. And though his busts have come down in Tennessee, there’s much work to be done by white people, specifically engaging in conversations with one another about racism, white supremacy, and the factual history of this country. Because these Co