Weird Little Guys The Ugliest Confederate Statue in the World: Jack Kershaw, Pt. 1
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Apr 2, 2026 A tangled story about a notorious Confederate monument and the strange art behind it. A student's act uncovers troubling provenance and hidden histories. The episode traces how monuments became flashpoints and spotlights an infamous, grotesque Forrest sculpture. It digs into the life of the man who made it, his fabricated heritage, and how that myth fueled a career resisting integration.
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Student Moves Confederate Bust To Archives
- A Sewanee student removed a bust of Confederate founder Leonidas Polk from the university library to place it in archives.
- The student left a note saying the bust should be contextualized in archives, not displayed above students' heads.
Statues Signal Civic Exclusion And Threat
- Molly Conger connects Confederate monuments to acts of racial terror and civic exclusion.
- She links 2015, 2017, and 2020 violence to statue debates, arguing monuments communicate that Black people are unsafe and unwelcome.
Charlottesville Recasts The Lee Statue
- Charlottesville removed its Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues after legal fights and new state law, with Lee's bronze later melted.
- The melted bronze is being stewarded by Swords into Plowshares to reimagine the material into new public art.