Subscribe Over the course of seven months, more symbols of hate were removed from public property than in the preceding four years combined, Brooks said in a statement.
The Law Center began tracking the movement to take the monuments down in 2015, when a white supremacist entered a South Carolina church and killed nine Black parishioners.
Virginia by far saw the most Confederate symbols removed in 2020 with 71, the Law Center s report found. The states with the next highest number are North Carolina with 24, and Alabama and Texas, both with 12.
Brooks praised Virginia, which changed its preservation law and, according to Brooks, led by example by removing so many Confederate symbols in 2020. Preservation laws in several other Southern states including Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina still exist and prohibit individual communities from removing certain displays.