I saw this piece but wasn't interested in reading it until you recommended it. (Part of the reason is that mass media journalism on controversial art, old or new, can often drive me nuts due to simplification of the whole story and lack of nuance.) Now I've read it, I recommend it too, to all. First, it's a very hopeful story about how democracy can still work. Second, the use of individual viewpoints, with short biographies, and how they have been affected by others, really gets the complexity and nuance.

Two comments on content:

I think the (Afro-American) police chief is a real smart cookie for immediately publicizing the results of the investigation but refusing to release the name or race of the driver.

I like that the author finished up with the opinion of Afro-American preservationist Joseph McGill after he gave a talk at the local historical society where among other things he did challenge both sides of the national statue debate by arguing for the historical value of slave cabins and Confederate monuments.