Surprise: Most Americans (And Most African-Americans) Oppose Removing Confederate Monuments

A solid majority of Americans favor leaving monuments to Confederate leaders where they are, according to a series of new polls.

One survey, by The Huffington Post/YouGov, found that only 29 percent of Americans want them removed.

“Americans are generally unsupportive of attempts to remove memorials honoring Confederate leaders,” Ariel Edwards-Levy of The Huffington Post wrote.

A separate survey even found that a plurality of African-Americans opposed their removal.

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Among highlights of recent surveys:

• 62 percent of adults in a National Public Radio (NPR)/Marist survey favored keeping Confederate monuments. The same survey found that 27 percent of Americans supported removal.
• 54 percent of those surveyed by Reuters/Ispos opposed statue removal. That survey found 27 percent of Americans wanted the monuments removed.
• 52 percent of respondents to a Morning Consult/Politico poll opposed removing monuments. Twenty-six percent wanted the monuments removed.
• 44 percent of African-Americans opposed removal of Confederate statues, an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist Poll Forty percent wanted them removed.

Even some prominent Democrats oppose removal of Confederate statues and symbols, National Review writer John Fund pointed out.

“I think it is too costly to refight the Civil War. We have paid too great a price in trying to bring people together,” former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young told The Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I personally feel that we made a mistake in fighting over the Confederate flag here in Georgia. Or that that was an answer to the problem of the death of nine people — to take down the Confederate flag in South Carolina. I am always interested in substance over symbols. If the truth be known, we’ve had as much agony — but also glory — under the United States flag. That flew over segregated America. It flew over slavery.”

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