The Confederate monuments that have already come down
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In the week following the violence in Charlottesville, cities across the U.S. have ramped up efforts to remove public statues and markers of the Confederacy for their racist symbolism. Many of these operations were conducted quietly in the middle of the night, and the removed statues join a list that has been growing since 2015, with 23 additions since Charlottesville.
Since Charlottesville
- University of Texas at Austin removed three statues in the middle of the night Sunday. Two honored Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston and the third memorialized Confederate cabinet member John Reagan. The university took down a statue of Jefferson Davis in 2015 after Dylann Roof shot down nine black people at a church in South Carolina. (NYT)
- Worthington, OH removed a plaque outside Confederate General Roswell Ripley's old home on Saturday ahead of likely protests at the site. (The Columbus Dispatch)
- Annapolis, MD took down a statue of Roger B. Taney, the Supreme Court Justice and Maryland native who wrote the majority opinion in the Dred-Scott decision of 1857, which barred black Americans from citizenship. The statue was removed overnight before last Friday. (NYT)
- Daytona Beach, FL removed three plaques honoring soldiers of the Confederacy on Friday morning. (Daytona Beach News-Journal)
- A marker for Robert E. Lee was removed in Franklin, OH on Thursday ahead of a planned protest at the site. (Dayton Daily News)
- Madison, WI removed a plaque for Confederate soldiers from a cemetery on Thursday. There are plans to remove a second monument. (U.S. News)
- North of the border, Montreal, CA removed a Jefferson Davis plaque downtown on Thursday. (Montreal Gazette)
- Baltimore, MD took down four statues overnight before last Wednesday. The monuments removed included a double statue honored both Lee and Jackson and a statue of Taney. (NYT)
- Brooklyn, NY removed two plaques honoring Lee on Wednesday. (NY Daily News)
- A plaque honoring Davis was removed in San Diego, CA on Wednesday. (LA Times)
- Los Angeles, CA removed its tribute to Confederate soldiers at the Hollywood Forever cemetery on Tuesday. (NBC)
- St. Petersburg, FL took down a plaque honoring Stonewall Jackson on Tuesday. (Tampa Bay Times)
- One statue was toppled and another removed in Durham, NC, home of Duke University. Protestors brought down the Confederate soldier last Monday, and the university removed a Lee statue from its chapel over the weekend. (NYT)
- Gainesville, FL took down a monument to Confederate soldiers last Monday. The removal was paid for by a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. (Gainesville Sun)
Before Charlottesville
- Rockville, MD moved a Confederate statue from a court house to a private location in July. (Bethesda Magazine)
- Orlando, FL relocated a Confederate soldier statue from a park to a cemetery in June. (CNN)
- Georges Island, MA covered up a headstone honoring Confederate soldiers in June. Plans for removal have not yet been announced. (Boston Globe)
- St. Louis, MO took down a monument honoring Confederate soldiers and sailors in June. (Reuters)
- New Orleans, LA removed four monuments, including an obelisk, in April. A bronze statue of Lee still stands in New Orleans. (NYT)
- Frederick, MD became the first Maryland city to remove a statue of Taney in March. (Baltimore Sun)
- A statue of a Confederate soldier removed by Louisville, KY was welcomed by Brandenburg, KY in Nov. 2016. (NYT)
What's next: Several cities have moved the statues to storage facilities until they can be permanently relocated. For example, New Orleans is "determining a more appropriate place to display the statues post-removal, such as a museum or other site, where they can be placed in their proper historical context from a dark period of American history," spokesperson Erin Burns told Axios.
