Charlottesville’s Lee Statue Meets its End, in a 2,250-Degree Furnace

The divisive Confederate monument, the focus of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally, was melted down in secret and will become a new piece of public art.
Demonstrators hold Confederate flags near the monument for Confederacy President Jefferson Davis  in Richmond, Va., after it was spray-painted with the phrase "Black Lives Matter."

Confederate Monuments Caused Voting Decline In Black Areas

As Confederate monuments were erected, people turned out to vote in lower numbers in predominantly Black areas.
The statue of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill was taken down Dec. 12. Hill’s remains beneath it are set to be relocated.

Richmond Takes Down Its Last Major City-Owned Confederate Memorial

Richmond's last major Confederate memorial on city property, a statue of Gen. A.P. Hill, was taken down Monday morning.
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was previously on display at the U.S. Capitol, now resides at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond.

Richmond Tore Down its Statues — and Revealed a New Angle on History

After the 2020 removal of Confederate memorials, museums provide a place to confront the ugly past and find a way forward.
Monument to Confederate War Dead in Hollywood Cemetery

Hollywood Cemetery: The Treatment of Post-War Confederate Dead

While cemeteries are tributes to the dead, they are really about the living. They are about those who want to commemorate something.
Chart of when Confederate monuments and namings occurred, with peaks in the 1910s and the 1960s.

Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy

A Southern Poverty Law Center study identified over 1,500 publicly-displayed symbols of the Confederacy in the South and beyond.
The Virginia monument, an equestrian statue on a pedestal with solders at its base.

The Contested Origins of Gettysburg’s Virginia Monument

Jon Tracey discusses the history of the creation of the Gettysburg Virginia Monument and the true reason it was erected.
Last ride: A statue of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is trucked away from Charlottesville, Virginia, in July — and bound for a museum exhibition in Los Angeles in 2022.

The Hot Market for Toppled Confederate Statues

Artists, museums and other groups are vying to claim fallen monuments from the Jim Crow era — but for very different reasons.
John B. Castleman statue in Louisville, Kentucky, on the ground in a field, covered.

Nearly 100 Confederate Monuments Were Toppled Last Year. What Happened to Them?

A striking photo project reveals the maintenance yards, cemeteries, and shipping containers where many of the memorials to white supremacy ended up.
Man takes picture as crane lifts statue off pedestal.

Virginia Removes Robert E. Lee Statue From State Capital

The Confederate memorial was erected in 1890, the first of six monuments that became symbols of white power along the main boulevard in Richmond.
Removal of graffitied Stonewall Jackson statue

The Fate of Confederate Monuments Should Be Clear

We know why they were built and why they have to come down.
Cartoon depiction of a confederate statue, its hat falling off as it is lifted off a pedestal covered in graffiti about love and justice

After the Lost Cause

Why are politics so consumed with the past?
A statue of the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest in Health Sciences Park in Memphis in 2015.

Tensions Rise in Memphis as Slave Trader’s Remains Are Removed

The remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader and leader of the Ku Klux Klan, will be moved from Memphis to a Confederate museum 200 miles away.
The Confederate statue, center, which was recently relocated from the Greensville County Courthouse, in its new location in the Emporia Cemetery in Virginia. (Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post)

The Confederacy’s Final Resting Place

Are cemeteries the right place to put Confederate statues and memorials being removed from court houses and town squares across the South?
Confederate Monument in Cemetery

Confederate Monuments in Cemeteries, Reminders That We Cannot All Rest In Peace

For people of color in particular, cemeteries can be a cruel reminders of trauma both past and present.
Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia.

Why Honor Them?

In the decades after the Civil War, Black Americans warned of the dangers of Confederate monuments.
Tuskegee history professor Frank Toland speaks to the gathered students at the base of the Confederate monument. (Photo by Jim Peppler; courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Black Protesters Have Been Rallying Against Confederate Statues for Generations

When Tuskegee student Sammy Younge, Jr., was murdered in 1966, his classmates focused their righteous anger on a local monument.
A black girl walking up to a building with a ghost-lit confederate monument in front of it.

The South’s Monuments Will Rise Again

The Confederate monuments did fall. But not permanently.
Gettysburg Battlefield, with monuments visible in the distance

We Need to Talk About Confederate Statues on U.S. Public Lands

At places like the Gettysburg battlefield and Arlington National Cemetery, there's a new, escalating conflict over monuments that honor the Lost Cause.

Confederate Statues Were Never Really About Preserving History

A series of graphs that help explain why at least 830 monuments were erected many decades after the end of the Civil War.