John Lewis statue replaces Confederate monument in Georgia
In Decatur, Georgia, a statue of former congressman John Lewis replaced a Confederate obelisk that was removed in 2020.
WASHINGTON _ Despite recent efforts to remove or rename Confederate memorials, there are still more than 2,000 symbols in places across the country, according to a report released Thursday.
“We should not honor those who fought to continue slavery and tear apart our democracy,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. “As the Trump administration escalates its efforts to rewrite our history, we cannot let up in telling the whole, true story of our nation.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks Confederate symbols and memorials displayed in publica spaces and across the country. That includes military bases, monuments, markers, street names and others. The center’s bi-annual report, “Whose Heritage?” was released April 24. It found that while successful efforts to remove memorials have slowed, the campaigns continue.
The report comes as the Trump administration works to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion across federal agencies, including in the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has renamed some bases.
Trump and his supporters have said the Confederate symbols are part of a rich Southern history and should not be erased. Trump has long defended the names of military bases.
“These monumental and very powerful bases have become part of a Great American Heritage,’’ he said in 2020.
In recent years, civil rights groups and others have ramped up efforts to preserve the history of underrepresented communities in America. They have also pushed to remove the Confederate symbol, including in the U.S. Capitol. For many, it’s as a symbol of hatred.
The Southern Poverty Law Center began tracking the monuments since 2015 after the murder of nine Black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The white supremacist who killed them had been pictured with a Confederate battle flag.
Since 2015, center officials said, activists have pushed to remove, relocate or renamed 415 Confederate memorials across the country. They noted that in 2023, the military renamed nine bases that were named after Confederate soldiers.
“That progress is under real threat,’’ said Seth Levi, the center’s chief program strategy officer, noting Trump’s effort to protect some Confederate memorials. “He has already used a loophole to take aim at those military bases and restored the former names of two of them honoring Confederates. He also signed an executive order at the end of March attempting to whitewash American history all over again.”
Trump recently signed an executive order that pushes back against some Smithsonian Institution museums and others whose work he said is part of a “widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history.”
Center officials also noted that some states still have holidays and events to honor Confederate soldiers. For example, they said, Alabama celebrates Confederate Memorial Day.
“It is unacceptable that states continue to honor those who fought to defend slavery and tear apart our democracy,’’ Levi said.
Of the 2,000 Confederate symbols, 685 are monuments, the report found.
Rivka Maizlish, a senior research analyst at the center, said the memorials still standing are the results of a “mass propaganda campaign to erase history. “
“Opponents of removing these memorials often claim that they don’t want to erase history,’’ she said on a virtual press conference. “In fact, the presence of Confederate memorials in the United States are the result of a concerted effort to do just that.”