‘The Neutral Ground’: Roy Wood Jr., CJ Hunt doc examines America’s troubling obsession with the Confederacy

CJ Hunt and Robert E. Lee monument

CJ Hunt gazes at a memorial of Robert E. Lee (Credit: Praavo Hanninen/ PBS)

Roy Wood Jr. and a colleague from “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” have teamed up to produce a documentary that examines America’s troubled romance and obsession with the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy.

“The Neutral Ground,” now streaming on PBS’ POV Docs, is the debut documentary from comedy writer and “Daily Show” field producer CJ Hunt. Wood is the executive producer of the feature. The film is Wood’s second PBS-related project to debut this year. In May, Wood appeared in an episode of “Finding Your Roots,” the PBS genealogy show hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Documentary filmmaker Darcy McKinnon also produced the feature film.

The documentary begins in 2015 as Hunt documents a raucous New Orleans City Council meeting about the removal of four Confederate monuments, and it quickly becomes apparent how divided white and Black residents are on the meaning of the city’s statues.

Here’s a deeper description of the documentary from PBS:

“When death threats halt the removals in New Orleans, Hunt hits the road, travelling across the South to try and understand why a losing army from 1865 still holds so much political and imaginative power in contemporary America. Through a mixture of investigative journalism and disarming humor, Hunt unravels America’s troubled romance with the “Lost Cause,” a romanticized and distorted interpretation of the war that ex-Confederates inserted into textbooks, films and the popular imagination.”

“In any public debate about Confederate monuments, it’s only a matter of time before someone utters the tired claim: ‘the Civil War wasn’t about slavery.’ Those six words epitomize the daily gaslighting that Black people experience in America. We are told the racism we see with our own eyes is imaginary; that, historically speaking, it never really existed,” Hunt said the film’s official press release. “I made this film to help viewers fight against that gaslighting.”

A June review from The Associated Press describes “The Neutral Ground” as a “serious, yet funny,” examination of the campaign that mythicized the Confederacy after the Civil War and continues the narrative that the conflict was more about freedom than the right to own slaves.

“You can’t name another war where the losers get thousands of monuments,” Hunt told The Associated Press in an interview.

In the film’s press release, Wood said the documentary tells the story of “people courageously dragging this nation into a promising and progressive conversation about racial reckoning.”

Neither Hunt nor Wood believe Confederate monuments should be destroyed, according to the AP. But both men agree the remnants should be out of public view.

“Wood supports the idea of moving them to special areas in museums or private facilities, so those that have a connection can preserve their history,” reports the Associated Press.

“The Neutral Ground” will stream for free at pov.org until August 4, 2021.

The documentary debuts amid national conversations about the future of Confederate monuments around the country. In May, the Stone Mountain Memorial Board in Georgia approved resolutions for an on-site museum that would tell the “truth” about slavery and the Civil War at Stone Mountain park, the site of the world’s largest Confederate monument. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would order the removal of more than a half-dozen Confederate statues currently on display at the U.S. Capitol.

Last May, after a rally demanding justice for the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, comedian Jermaine “FunnyMaine” Johnson called for the removal of the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Birmingham’s historic Linn Park. After a peaceful demonstration later devolved into a night of vandalism in the city’s downtown area, demolition crews began removing the monument the next day.

The morning after the demonstration, Wood and a crew of people went out to the city’s civil rights district to assist businesses in the area with cleanup efforts. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon later that week, Wood talked about his friend Jermaine Johnson, as well as his love for Birmingham, the city where he was raised.

“Birmingham, to me, is just such a different place to be from,” Wood told Fallon during the segment, explaining that the city is rich with justice and people trying to fight for it.

The May demonstration in Birmingham would reignite a movement to take down Confederate monuments across the country. Throughout the year, Confederate monuments would be removed in Virginia, Indiana, Florida and Tennessee. The Marines and Navy would also ban images of the Confederacy on military property, and NASCAR would go on to ban displays of the Confederate battle flag.

This past March, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report saying Alabama removed 12 Confederate symbols in 2020, the third most among the states. In June, the SPLC called on Alabama to complete the job of removing the pedestals of the Robert E. Lee Statue in Montgomery and the Birmingham Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

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