The calls to remove Confederate symbols can be seen as a continuation of a movement that became more urgent after the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, pushed governments to examine what the monuments symbolize.
This story is part of Confederate Reckoning, a collaborative project of USA TODAY Network newsrooms across the South to critically examine the legacy of the Confederacy and its influence on systemic racism today.But in the weeks since George Floyd died in police custody, those calling for an end to racism and police brutality have turned their fight for social justice toward toppling symbols of the white supremacist past.
In Mississippi, where the state flag was altered in 1894 to feature the Confederate battle flag, the NCAA and Southeastern Conference threatened to boycott the state unless it adopted a new design. Voters in November will decide on a new flag. Adriane Lentz-Smith, associate chair of the history department at Duke University, where she teaches courses on the civil rights movement and Black lives, sees the current movement as a direct response to the 2017 rally, when President Donald Trump declined to decry the white nationalists who protested the removal of Charlottesville's Lee statue. “The mainstreaming of white supremacist politics has made the statues seem not just objectionable, but dangerous.
TOP: Lahahuia Hanks holds up a fist in front of the Confederate carving at Stone Mountain Park during a Black Lives Matter protest June 16 in Stone Mountain, Ga. The park features a Confederate memorial carving depicting Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. BELOW: Stone Mountain Park features a large Confederate memorial stone carving.That violence is linked with monuments such as Georgia’s Stone Mountain. At the park, portraits of Lee, Davis and Confederate Gen.
at its events. In Mississippi, where the legislature voted to replace the flag, the move was supported by the majority-white Mississippi Baptist Convention.Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration employees Willie Townsend, left, and Joe Brown, attach a Mississippi state flag to the harness before raising it over...
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