SPLC’s Whose Heritage? Reports Over 100 Confederate Symbols Removed Since George Floyd’s Murder

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today announced that over 100 Confederate symbols have been removed since May 26, 2020 — the start of the protests following the police killing of George Floyd. The Whose Heritage? report’s data and map track public symbols of the Confederacy across the United States.

• Since May 26, 2020, we have found a total of 102 Confederacy symbols that were removed from public spaces or renamed.
  • Sixty-four (64) of those symbols are Confederate monuments. Comparatively, 58 Confederate monuments were removed between 2015 and 2019.
  • Virginia has removed the highest number of Confederacy symbols (40) since George Floyd’s killing, followed by North Carolina (18) and Texas (10).
  • June and July 2020 were tied at 38 removals for each month.
  • Since the Charleston church shooting, a total of 171 Confederate symbols have been removed or relocated from public spaces.

View a list of the 102 Confederate symbols that have been removed across the U.S. here.

The report shows that nearly 1,800 Confederate symbols are still publicly present in the U.S., and 696 of those symbols are monuments. This encompasses government buildings, Confederate monuments and statues, plaques, schools, parks, counties, cities, military assets and streets and highways named after anyone associated with the Confederacy.

The following statement is from SPLC Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks:

“The extrajudicial killing of Black people has reignited the movement to remove Confederate symbols, even in Southern states where regressive preservation laws halted removal and circumvented the will of communities. But when a society shamelessly honors and protects white supremacists, it follows that those in power would enact unjust laws that disproportionately impact communities of color.

“The public killing of George Floyd has served as a turning point in American race relations – particularly for those who believed that systemic anti-Black racism and police violence against people of color didn’t exist. The ensuing protests forced states that had no intention of acting to rid communities of these symbols of hatred and oppression.

“As long as Confederate iconography remains on public lands, our country’s dehumanization of Black people prevails. Whether these symbols remain or are removed, the SPLC firmly believes that communities should decide what they want to see in their public spaces and we will continue to support their efforts.”

https://www.splcenter.org/data-projects/whose-heritage

Background on the Whose Heritage? report:

After learning that nine Black people were killed during a Bible study at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. by a gunman that was radicalized by white supremacist websites, the SPLC began to catalogue all of the Confederate symbols in public spaces across the country.
 

If you know of a Confederate symbol in your area or would like to share an update, please send an email to: confederateupdates@splcenter.org.

The Whose Heritage? Action Guide helps communities take action to remove symbols of the Confederacy from public places.