HP Program Director Jorge Otero-Pailos speaks with Pace University Professor of Law Shelby Green, who is teaching the Historic Preservation program’s master class for the Spring 2021 semester, Historical Narratives from Architecture in and of Public Spaces.
Together they discuss the symbolism of Confederate monuments in public squares in the American South–and these monuments’ presence in relationship to democracy, public ownership, and law. Green poses pertinent questions about the American legal system’s protection of Confederate monuments in many Southern states, and offers her suggestions for how the public can confront frequently illiberal state statutes and courts–notably, by invoking civil disobedience. If the legal system wide segments of the public to protect the physical manifestations of white supremacy, how can the public respond? And what does this tell us about American democracy? This conversation was recorded virtually in January 2021.
Source by Columbia GSAPP