CONFEDERATE MEMORIALS FALLING FASTER THAN EVER

Universities across the U.S. are removing memorials associated with racism at a swifter pace in response to protests against discrimination and police brutality.

At least 10 tributes linked to White supremacy or the Confederacy were taken down from campuses in the month after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by Minneapolis police, according to data compiled by Hilary Green, an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama. That compares with 19 from mid-2015 through 2019, a span that included a shooting at a Black American church in South Carolina and a deadly far-right rally in Virginia.

The changes reflect a broader reckoning that has put pressure on institutions from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to diversify their ranks and create more inclusive spaces for people of color.

Worldwide, more than 100 names, statues and plaques linked to racism had come down as of June 30 since Floyd was killed in late May, compared with 97 in the earlier period, Green found. Dozens more are set to disappear.

“To have these names on buildings without a fuller, more complex view at the least signals to students that there’s a continuing belief in those figures and their ideologies — and particularly in their racial ideologies,” said Leslie Harris, a history professor at Northwestern University.

On U.S. campuses, many students, alumni and faculty support the moves. But others see them as a misguided effort to rewrite the past.

This past week, Washington & Lee University’s board of trustees said it set up a committee to examine whether it should change its name after mounting calls from faculty and students. The name honors George Washington and Robert E. Lee.