What Messages Do Confederate Icons Convey?

Members of the Texas State Preservation Board met today to decide where to put a plaque honoring the Confederacy after it had been removed from the Texas Capitol earlier this month.

The plaque was installed in 1959 and came under scrutiny in 2017 when Dallas state Rep. Eric Johnson called for its removal.

Such Confederate icons and symbols on public display continue to draw controversy around the country. So, what are the messages they convey to the public?

That question is what Annette Gordon-Reed is going to address during her upcoming lecture at the University of Houston Law Center on Thursday, Feb. 14. Gordon-Reed is a history professor at Harvard Law School. She’s the author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.

In the audio above, Gordon-Reed tells Houston Matters producer Maggie Martin about the messages — both explicit and hidden — that Confederate icons convey to the public.