KAREN: The Virginia Museum of History and Culture, also known by its initials, the VMHC, is the State History Museum of Virginia.

This museum is the oldest cultural institution in the commonwealth of Virginia.

One of our major permanent exhibitions here at the museum is a nearly 10,000 square foot exhibition called, "The Story of Virginia."

And this is a display that traces the very long, rich, and varied history of Virginia from ancient history from its original indigenous inhabitants up through the present day.

Of course, we have to recognize that some of that history is troubled by the great American paradox of us being a nation founded on the principles of independence and liberty but also Virginia was the place that codified American slavery and was always the largest slave holding state in the country.

Virginia was the crucible of the Civil War.

It was also an important site in the rise of the civil rights movement.

We also do have an exhibition called, "The Lost Cause."

And it actually speaks to Virginia history, the history of this institution as well as present day issues of social and racial justice that American society and the global society is very much still grappling with.

And this is a room which was intended to be a memorial to the Confederacy and to the Lost Cause that created this mythologized narrative of the Civil War.

But it was very much a myth that the Confederate cause was based on a fight for state's rights rather than the reality that it was based on an attempt to preserve the institution of slavery.

It was also a myth that glorified Confederate military heroes like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and others.

And of course our entire nation has been grappling with the legacy of the Lost Cause.

And that kind of national reckoning really came to a head in 2020 with the police murder of George Floyd, which prompted nationwide protests against persistent and enduring racial inequalities and, um, systemic racism.

LAURITA: So we just finished a tour of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture and it really shed a lot of light on why the statues were put up on Monument Avenue and also why the statues were removed from Monument Avenue.

There were opposing opinions that the people needed to honor the Confederate soldiers that lost the war to just romanticize the idea of the Confederacy.

LAUREN: But that... What she's talking about is in an exhibit called The Lost Cause, which I think is so perfectly named because like she said, they lost a lost cause.

KAREN: History allows us to both understand our presence, to foster empathy across time and space, but also to direct and inspire our future.