Oct 15
5:00PM – 7:00PM
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2026-10-15T17:00:00
2026-10-15T19:00:00
America/New_York
GLC Film Screening and Panel Discussion: “Ghosts of a Lost Cause - Battle for the Will of the People in Small-Town America”
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Luce Hall Auditorium: 5:00pm—7:00pm
Reception to follow: Luce Hall Common Room
Luce Hall | Yale University | 34 Hillhouse Avenue | New Haven, CT 06511
Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
The MacMillan Center, Yale University
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. This 30-minute film tells the story of the small town of Murray, Kentucky, where ordinary citizens banded together to fight against the county government and Lost Cause supporters for the removal of a courthouse-lawn statue of Robert E. Lee. While the statue was not removed, the struggle created a local movement for justice and equity. As community organizer Crystal Fox put it, she did not set out to be an activist but rather to “bring attention and change to things I thought needed attention and change.”
Building on the work of the Yale Public History Institute, this film screening and conversation addresses how public statues and memorials bring “attention and change” when they are constructed, removed, altered, or left to stand. Join us for a conversation with the film’s executive producer and activists from Kentucky and from the President’s House Coalition, who are fighting to restore the memorial to the nine people enslaved by George Washington in Philadelphia. During this period of censorship and authoritarianism, this program will highlight how truth-telling in public spaces helps to raise awareness of social problems and stimulate collective action toward justice.
Moderator: David W. Blight, Sterling Professor of History and Director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University
Speakers:
Gerry James, social artist, researcher, strategist, storyteller, and outdoor leader; Founder of Explore Kentucky; Yale Public History Institute Workshop Leader
Crystal Fox, President/Executive Director of the Mayfield Enrichment Center, Mayfield, Kentucky
Michelle Flamer, Board chair of the historical organization1838 Black Metropolis; founding member of the “President’s House Alliance”; retired Senior Attorney at City of Philadelphia Law Department; Yale Public History Institute Presenter
On Campus — 34 Hillhouse Avenue
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