Some 160 Confederate symbols pulled down in US: Report

WASHINGTON

At least 160 Confederate symbols were removed across the US in 2020, a report is set to say later Tuesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is set to announce the figure in its "Whose Heritage?" report, according to The Associated Press. It will chronicle the removal of several monuments honoring confederate figures, including one in the US Capitol that had commemorated Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Lee led the Confederate Army on the battlefield as it futilely sought to secede from the Union to maintain the right to own Blacks as slaves. The Civil War led to the highest number of war-related American casualties in US history.

More than 655,000 people were killed in the conflict that ultimately led to the military defeat of the Confederacy, and the abolition of slavery throughout the US via the Thirteenth Amendment.

Still, the Confederacy and its symbols continue to be honored by some, particularly among southerners and the far-right. A Confederate flag was notably taken into the US Capitol when it was assaulted by former President Donald Trump's supporters Jan. 6.

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

Lee's statue has been replaced with a monument to Barbara Johns, a 16-year-old Black Virginian who led a student strike in the southern state in 1951 over unequal conditions in her segregated school. The action led to legal proceedings that went all the way to the Supreme Court, eliminating segregation in public schooling.