SPLC: Over 160 Confederate Symbols Were Removed in 2020

More than 160 Confederate symbols were removed from public spaces or renamed last year after the death of George Floyd, more than the previous four years combined, a watchdog group said on Tuesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has campaigned for the removal of Confederate statues and monuments, released the findings as part of a report on the status of the symbols.

The nonprofit organization, based in Montgomery, Ala., started tracking symbols of the Confederacy after a white supremacist killed nine Black worshipers at a storied African-American church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.

In the group’s “Whose Heritage?” report, the Law Center said that last year had been transformative, but that more than 2,100 symbols of the Confederacy remained, including 704 monuments.