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Top Stories: Dallas Confederate Task Force Says Monuments Should Be Moved

CAROL M. HIGHSMITH
/
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The top local stories this evening from KERA News:

Dallas' Public Art Committee met to hear recommendations Tuesday afternoon on what to do with the city's Confederate monuments from a task force appointed by Mayor Mike Rawlings. 

Chairperson Frances Cudjoe Waters presented the task force's report, which suggests that the monuments be placed somewhere with an educational value — like a museum — in order to provide historical context. The committee members agreed with the recommendations unanimously. 

The group also recommends renaming certain streets in Dallas named after Confederate leaders. The Cultural Affairs Commission takes up the matter on Thursday and is expected to make recommendations to the Dallas City Council. The council could vote on the matter in November.

Last month, a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from a park in Oak Lawn, formerly known as Lee Park. The name of the park was reverted to Oak Lawn Park. 

  Other stories this evening:

  • The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum broke ground today at its new location in the West End. KERA's Miguel Perez was there for an emotional ceremony.

  • You can pack up and leave Texas, but transplants have a way of discovering no matter how far you travel, the state stays with you. That was Roger Hodge's experience. He moved away when he was 18, and recently traveled back to Del Rio to explore the history of the place his family has ranched for generations. Today on Think, he talked with Krys Boyd about rediscovering his hometown.

  • On Tuesdays, KERA's One Crisis Away project looks at life on the financial edge. And today, Courtney Collins revisits someone we first met in the series "No Place To Go," which focused on the housing crunch in rapidly gentrifying West Dallas. Her name is Lily Garcia, and at age 84, she's a first-time homeowner

 You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Gus Contreras is a digital producer and reporter at KERA News. Gus produces the local All Things Considered segment and reports on a variety of topics from, sports to immigration. He was an intern and production assistant for All Things Considered in Washington D.C.