Side Note

There are still 1,728 Confederate symbols on display in the U.S.

110 Confederate monuments, names, and symbols have been removed from public spaces like schools and parks over the last two years, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Though some removals have attracted national media attention — such as when white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia violently protested the relocation of a Robert E. Lee statue last August — others have occurred more quietly, including 31 removals in Texas, 14 in Virginia, and eight in Florida.

Yet despite a widespread movement to eliminate the names and likenesses of generals like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis from schools and cities, the report found that 1,728 Confederate symbols still dot the U.S. As you can see in the map below, of 772 physical monuments still standing, more than 300 are in Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina — though others are scattered as far as Iowa, Idaho, and California.

According to the report, these symbols remain widespread for a myriad of reasons, including state laws that protect monuments in some former Confederate states and backlash from local populations. Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, told The Outline in an email that local leaders often misread what the Civil War represented: “We’ve seen a remarkable effort to remove Confederate monuments from the public square, yet the impact has been limited by a strong backlash among many white Southerners who still cling to the myth of the ‘Lost Cause’ and the revisionist history that these monuments represent.”