On Second Thought For Monday, July 31, 2017

Voter purge, incumbents, Otis Music Campers,Confederacy knowledge, Sheffield Hale

First, 50,000 Fulton County voters received letters saying they may be declared inactive, because they didn’t update the address on their voter registration cards. The Georgia ACLU is threatening legal action against the state, claiming it’s actions are in violation of the Voter Registration Act of 1993. But is this simple housekeeping for an elections system, or part of an effort to make it harder for some people to vote? Joining us is Andra Gillespie, Emory University Political Science Professor.

Then, the Georgia House of Representatives had more uncontested seats in the last election cycle than any legislative chamber in the nation. Nearly all incumbents retained their seats. Only 31 of the 180 House seats featured candidates from both parties—leaving 83 percent of all seats uncontested. Andra Gillespie weighs in on why incumbents rule in Georgia. And we also speak with Greg Bluestein, political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Next, we hope you heard our broadcast from the Historic Douglass Theatre last week. We celebrated Macon’s musical history with a local audience. But Macon’s talent is also very present tense. For 10 years now, the Otis Redding Foundation has hosted a summer camp to connect talented young people with coaches from the music industry. We hear the musical stylings of a few Otis Music Campers, who opened up our taping in Macon with a talent show in front of a live audience.

Then, a few months ago after much debate, a Civil War monument of Robert E. Lee was removed from downtown New Orleans. Support for the public display of Confederate symbols in public often goes back to Southern Pride, but a new study about these symbols raises questions about how much Confederate enthusiasts known about the Confederacy. The study’s authors analyzed a 2004 survey by Georgia State University of white Georgians who support these symbols. We talk about the role of historians in explaining the Civil War with Civil War historian Kevin Levin and Daina Ramey Berry, a professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Finally, Georgia's Civil War legacy has been hotly debated over the years by everyone from historians to lawmakers. The Atlanta History Center developed online tools to help put Confederate monuments in historical perspective. In a commentary, the center’s president and CEO Sheffield Hale explains why he thinks no Confederate memorials should be altered, removed, or moved.