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Publication Date

5-1-2021

Keywords

public policy, racial inequality, discrimination

Volume

2021

Abstract

As of May 2021, 736 physical monuments and over 1000 other state-sponsored memorials to the Confederate States of America remain in the United States. Most of these markers were built as terror tactics targeting Black Americans during the post-Reconstruction and Civil Rights Movement eras of the twentieth century, long after the end of the Civil War and the Confederacy. Some of the reasons why Confederate markers and support for them persist in the public square are general unfamiliarity with Civil War history, widespread negationist history narratives, and state laws prohibiting local governments from altering Confederate monuments. Although Confederate markers ostensibly memorialize the past, they inflict rac1alized harm in the present, including worse health among Black Americans, economic losses. funds tor pro-Confederate organizations. and the attention of violent White supremacy. Leading practices for alleviating these consequences include proposals to relocate Confederate monuments to museum settings and protests calling for marker removal.

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