"New book explores how the American South has ‘done the dirty work of the nation" PBS NewsHour 2/2/2022
Excerpt
SUMMARY: In her new book "South to America," author Imani Perry seeks to change how people view the American South and, thus, the country’s history as a whole. Jeffrey Brown spoke with Perry, who traveled through the southern regions of the U.S. and explored the complexities and misperceptions she found along the way.
SUMMARY: As the country faces a moment of reckoning about its treatment of Black Americans and other people of color, the display of memorials, monuments and statues is being reexamined. Some of these symbols are being torn down by protesters, and others removed by authorities or relocated. But what is the historical context behind their origin? Jeffrey Brown reports for our Race Matters coverage.
SUMMARY: The debate over physical symbols of the Confederacy has evolved into a broader one about U.S. history. Judy Woodruff talks to Peniel Joseph, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Arielle Hudson one of six students who petitioned the University of Mississippi to relocate a campus Confederate statue.
SUMMARY: Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has just become the 14th head of the Smithsonian Institution -- and its first black leader. He sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss the challenges facing the world’s largest museum and research complex and why the Smithsonian is as much about today and tomorrow as it is about the past.
SUMMARY: As the nation mourns George H.W. Bush, we share some personal reflections. Amna Nawaz speaks with USA Today’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page who's writing a biography of Barbara Bush, Peter Roussel now a professor at Sam Houston State University and previously a Bush press secretary, and Christopher Buckley a novelist who served as chief speechwriter for Bush when he was Vice President.
SUMMARY: As Americans pay their respects to former President George H.W. Bush, we speak with some of the political colleagues who knew him best. Andy Card his former deputy chief of staff, and former Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) join Judy Woodruff to discuss Bush’s ‘courageous’ commitment to the Americans with Disabilities Act and his remarkable ability to build relationships across party lines.
SUMMARY: It's difficult to sum up an entire life in a memorial service, no matter how grand. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Presidential historian Michael Beschloss, Bush family friend David Bates, and Margaret Warner [formerly NewsHour] who covered the President on the campaign trail and is now a senior fellow at Yale University, join Judy Woodruff to share their personal stories of President George H.W. Bush.
SUMMARY: A new, single volume of history sets out to explore the experiment in government that is the United States. Jeffrey Brown sits down with award-winning Harvard historian Jill Lepore, author of “These Truths: A History of the United States,” to discuss how we now understand the role of women and people of color in our political heritage, and how to put today’s politics of division in proportion.
