Whose Heritage?

Public Symbols of the Confederacy

The Civil War ended 154 years ago. The Confederacy, as former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has said, was on the wrong side of humanity. Our public entities should no longer play a role in distorting history by honoring a secessionist government that waged war against the United States to preserve white supremacy and the enslavement of millions of people.

In an updated edition of the 2016 report Whose Heritage?, the SPLC identifies 114 Confederate symbols that have been removed since the Charleston attack — and 1,747 that still stand.

It’s past time for the South – and the rest of the nation – to bury the myth of the Lost Cause once and for all.

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"The Confederate flag is coming to mean something to everybody now. It means the southern cause. It means the heart throbs of the people of the South. It is becoming to be the symbol of the white race and the cause of the white people. The Confederate flag means segregation." —Roy V. Harris, Editor of Augusta Courier, 1951.

"[I]t should have never been there. These grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain." —Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, July 10, 2015, on the Confederate battle flag on the State House grounds in Columbia

Stone Mountain: A Monumental Dilemma

Robert E. Lee is as tall as a nine-story building. Jefferson Davis’ nose is the size of a sofa. Stone Mountain in Georgia is often considered "the largest shrine to white supremacy in the world."

Read more about Stone Mountain
Here's what you can do

Removing symbols of the Confederacy can be daunting. But by speaking up, you are taking a step toward building a community where the values of equal justice and equal opportunity are shared by all.

Take action