Organizing Through The Divide

Race Capitol

This week Race we discuss Organizing through the Divide. Chels talks to author Dr. Peter Rachleff & labor educator Bill Fletcher Jr about how the institutions of Richmond have worked strategically to divide the movement and how the Lee Monument represents the literal fight in the court and the current symbolic fight to defend Black lives. We go back to why the gigantic monument was proposed in 1890; public memory can verbalize that it was to solidify the white race but do you know the context of the time? Have you learned about the Workingmen’s Reform Party that built the old City Hall on an 8 hour day? Have you learned that it was this labor organizing movement that brought the proposal to glorify a Confederate General and construct the “Lost Cause” narrative we still fight today? Join us this week to learn about this third political party that organized through the national Knights of Labor but was stopped in their tracks with the contract to build the statue of Robert E. Lee. Tune in this week on Race Capitol, and don't forget to subscribe! Learn something? Join our Race Capitol patreon and support our work as we interrogate the racial narratives of our place, space and time in Richmond, VA -- Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=RDyfQNdwgvJMw&feature=share&playnext=1 resources from episode: -Learn and Read from Bill Fletcher Jr.: http://billfletcherjr.com/books/ -The Story Behind The Robert E Lee Statue by Peter Rachleff: https://progressive.org/dispatches/story-behind-lee-statue-richmond-virginia-rachleff-200707/ -Industrial Slavery in the Old South by Robert S. Starobin https://www.jstor.org/stable/3112636?seq=1 -Black Labor in Richmond VAa 1865-1890 https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/65ngq4ck9780252060267.html -The Freedman’s Savings Bank: -https://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/pages/freedmans-savings-bank.aspx -The Half Thats Never Been Told by Edward E Baptist: https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-half-has-never-been-told-by-edward-e-baptist-1409952510 -Yohuru Williams http://www.yohuruwilliams.net/YW_publications.html -Marcus Rediker: https://redemmas.org/titles/16303-the-amistad-rebellion--an-atlantic-odyssey-of-slavery-and-freedom -Never Caught by Dr Erica Armstrong: https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/history/never-caught-washingtons-relentless-pursuit-their-runaway-slave-ona -The Debt: What Americans Owe to Blacks: http://www.randallrobinson.com/debt.html -Amazon is building on a plantation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/11/27/virginia-portion-amazons-hq-should-acknowledge-what-lies-beneath/?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.2fb9b0917c41 -Richmond Magazine: Old City Hall: https://richmondmagazine.com/news/richmond-history/40-moments-you-can-fight-for-city-hall/