In the aftermath of the Civil War, over 60 monuments honoring Confederate soldiers were erected across Kentucky, many at the turn of the 20th century during the Jim Crow era. Only ten monuments honoring Kentuckians who fought for the Union Army exist, despite less than 35,000 Kentuckians serving in the Confederacy, compared to over 100,000 who served on the Union side, including 24,000 African-Americans. The Colored Soldiers Monument in Frankfort is the sole monument commissioned to honor the service of Black soldiers. Confederate monuments increasingly were focused on a memorialization of the so-called “Lost Cause”.
The murder of Breonna Taylor and the failures of the criminal justice system that followed thrust Kentucky and its numerous monuments to the “Lost Cause” into the 2020 Movement for Black Lives. Resistance in Louisville triggered resistance in small communities for the first time in a generation. This documentary highlights the stories of ordinary citizens who chose to fight in an advocacy desert against the “good ol’ boy” network.
This special screening kicks off Beyond Statues: A Convening on Land, Space, and Memory, the Monuments Workshop's inaugural national conference. Following the film, Monuments Workshop co-director Zachary Bray will moderate a conversation with filmmakers and local community leaders exploring the evolving work of public memory and memorialization. The screening is co-sponsored by the Monuments Workshop and The Kentucky Theatre.