Historical Markers or Markers of White Supremacy? Confederate Memorialization, Racial Threat, and Hate Crime.

This article examines the relationship between contemporary Confederate memorialization—specifically the presence of Confederate monuments—and anti-Black hate crime, as well as compliance with hate crime reporting laws in the United States. Using data from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report Hate Crime Statistics, and the American Community Survey, the study finds that Confederate monuments are disproportionately located in economically advantaged counties with larger Black populations, primarily in the American South. While law enforcement agencies in the South show lower compliance with hate crime reporting, counties with Confederate monuments that do report hate crimes exhibit significantly higher rates of anti-Black hate crime. The findings suggest that Confederate monuments serve as symbolic markers linked to enduring racial hierarchies and may contribute to environments where anti-Black bias and violence are more prevalent, highlighting complex challenges for hate crime law enforcement and intergroup relations.