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How the Monuments Came Down

Winner of multiple awards — including a Capital Emmy for Historical Documentary — How the Monuments Came Down is a searing look at the history of white supremacy and Black resistance in Richmond, Virginia. The feature-length film — brought to life by history-makers, descendants, scholars, and activists — reveals how monuments to Confederates stood for more than a century, and why they fell.

Produced by Field Studio in association with VPM
Premiered June 2021 | 88 minutes
Streaming on PBS | Featured on NPR

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Classroom-ready teacher kit from PBS LearningMedia

Awards and honors:

  • 2022 John E. O’Connor Film Award for Best Historical Documentary, American Historical Association

  • 2022 Capital Emmy for Historical Documentary

  • 2021 Thaddeus Stevens Award for Social Engagement, Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival

Praise for How the Monuments Came Down:

  • “I think the film is brilliant. I really enjoyed the cast more than any I can remember. In some documentaries there are just a couple of people who really stand out, and others who annoy. These folks were uniformly excellent, adding their own thing to the mix. I found it very moving.” —Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History, the National Book Award for Nonfiction, a National Humanities Medal, and a MacArthur “Genius Grant”

  • “The film is a national story through the intimate lens of Richmond history.” —2021 Pulitzer Prize-winner for commentary, Michael Paul Williams, Richmond Times-Dispatch

  • “A stunning achievement! How the Monuments Came Down takes us on a journey from slavery to freedom to the present, unraveling the complex history of race, racism, and resistance in the capital of the Confederacy with pace and purpose. The historical depth and detail is remarkable, making unmistakably clear that the Black Lives Matter movement is a part of a continuum of Black protest which has transformed the South and America. This is the film that we need to make sense of the turbulent and transformative times in which we live.” —Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Professor of History, Ohio State University

  • “This story emerges compellingly through the voices of historians, activists, descendants, and community members. Rather than a triumphant narrative of justice achieved, the film proposes that the project of racial liberation is an ongoing, unfinished project.” —Citation of the American Historical Association selection committee, conferring the John E. O’Connor Award, the organization’s annual honor for best historical documentary.

  • “How the Monuments Came Down needs to be required viewing for all K-12 students in Virginia.” —Niya Bates, Public Historian, former director of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

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