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Updated February 24th, 2021 at 20:52 IST

160 Confederate symbols taken down in 2020 across US, Southern Poverty Law Center says

Authorities took down the outdoor bronze equestrian statue of the commander of the Confederate States Army  Robert E. Lee. among many confederate symbols.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
confederate symbols
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US Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday stated that at least 160 public Confederate symbols were taken down or moved from public premises in 2020, citing that the controversial statues celebrated the ‘white supremacist’ history in America. Until recently, authorities took down the outdoor bronze equestrian statue of the commander of the Confederate States Army Robert E. Lee in Virginia state, which has remained a part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol for almost 111 years. According to sources of the Associated Press, the agency keeps a tab of over 2,100 statues, symbols, placards, buildings, and public parks across the United States which are linked with the Confederacy, and plans to release figures related to the total number of confederate statues from its database. 

“These racist symbols only serve to uphold the revisionist history and the belief that white supremacy remains morally acceptable,” SPLC chief of staff Lecia Brooks said in a statement, cited by AP. “This is why we believe that all symbols of white supremacy should be removed from public spaces,” she added.

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[Credit: AP]

Many controversial confederate statues donned at the entrance of important government buildings across the United States were replaced. Lee’s statue installed in the Capitol’s Crypt was replaced by a statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns, who now stands as a representative of Virginia. At the eponymous hall, 35 such statues were taken down. These sculptures were moved to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond. SPLC formulated an eight-member commission for the removal of these symbols, and officials have decided to commission artists to design new sculptures in place of older ones. Meanwhile, according to AP’s sources, each state’s legislature has been entitled to a choice to elect two representatives to the Capitol’s collection. 

Symbolic of 'racial divide'

As several confederate figures were removed over the last year, as many as 704 Confederate monuments still stand in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee due to policies enacted by the state lawmakers that prohibit SPLC to take rightful action. The movement to take down the slaveholder leaders from civil wars was sparked after the killing of Black man George Floyd last year. As the Black lives matter movement unfurled, the US House approved a bill to take down Confederate monuments symbolic of the racial divide, including statues of Robert E. Lee, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision, and other Confederate leaders. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said at a Capitol news conference that Defenders and purveyors of sedition, slavery, segregation, and white supremacy had no place in the temple of liberty.

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Published February 24th, 2021 at 20:52 IST

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