christy coleman is my colleague, the ceo of the american civil war museum. she's a native of williamsburg. she holds a ba in museum studies from hampton university. before the combination that formed the american civil war museum in 2013, she was the ceo of the american civil war center at historic treg ager. christy came to richmond from detroit where she had been president and ceo of the nation's largest african-american museum, the charles h. wright museum of african-american history. she began her career in public history at colonial williamsburg. after more than a decade -- after more than a decade there she became its director of public programs. christy's no stranger to controversies over public history. having been at the center of the storm over colonial williamsburg's re-enactment of a slave auction. when she arrived in richmond in 2008, she was quickly introduced to the strong feelings that surround civil war monuments. she recently served on governor terry mcauliffe's monument work group, but we'll let christy tell us more about all of this in he

american civil war museum ceo christie coleman, explains how social forces during different time periods in american, influence the creation confederate statues in the south. and she describes a decision the museum faced over a donated jefferson davis statue. this 50-minute talk was recorded at a symposium held at the library of virginia in richard mond -- richmond, virginia, this past february. >>> as you know, we're here today to explore an aspect of civil war history that's very much in the news. it actually has been often in the news for many years. some of you no doubt find the often rancorous public debates about civil war monuments troubling and just wish the debates would go away. but you know it won't just go away. so the constructive thing to do is to accept the debates as evidence that the subject of our institution, the american cil