# David Cunningham on Contesting Confederate Monuments (JP)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-african-american-studies-614218/david-cunningham-on-contesting-confederate-monuments-jp
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-african-american-studies-614218/david-cunningham-on-contesting-confederate-monuments-jp.md
Podcast: [New Books in African American Studies](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-african-american-studies-614218)
Published: 2026-06-04T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK4881329373.mp3
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK4881329373.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-african-american-studies-614218/episodes/david-cunningham-on-contesting-confederate-monuments-jp
Duration seconds: 3077

## Resource

David Cunningham joins John to speak about his pathbreaking article about visiting each of the 113 communities that removed or relocated Confederate symbols between 2015 and 2023. After discussing his co-authored Social Problems article, “Contesting Commemorative Landscapes” which first got him thinking about monument removal, he posits that “expungement, amplification, and repositioning” are three ways contemporary communities contest the monuments of the past.. The conversation from there ranges onward through various kinds of contested removal, ending with Cesar Chavez and his ongoing de-monumentalization. David is author of There’s Something Happening Here: The New Left, the Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence and the award-winning Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era KKK,, a member of the City of St. Louis Reparations Commission and recently has been engaged in exploring political signalling in public art and monuments, including a forthcoming article on the political and cultural work of murals in Protestant and Catholic communities and in the interface areas that connect them in Belfast. His earlier Recall This Book episodes include on racialized policing in the US, on January 6th , and also on the 2024 presidential election–and a conversation with Glenn Patterson, author of Lapsed Protestant about the mural culture and politicized spaces of Belfast and Northern Ireland. Read the episode here. Mentioned in the episode By David Cunmningham himself: “What Richmond got Right about taking down Confederate Monuments” and a 2023 article coauthored with Christina Simko, “Montgomery’s Monumental Truths” On place vs space there is wonderful work by Pierre Nora and Henri Lefebvre. Interface zones and the strategic cul de sacs that continue to divide…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-african-american-studies-614218/episodes/david-cunningham-on-contesting-confederate-monuments-jp/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-african-american-studies-614218/david-cunningham-on-contesting-confederate-monuments-jp.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.