These statues were intended to promote white supremacy and racial terror.

Confederate monuments comprise a significant portion of the statues facing backlash. Although many claim that controversial, Confederate memorials were intended to serve as innocent reminders of our history, the circumstances surrounding these statues' establishment say otherwise. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, "The dedication of Confederate monuments and the use of Confederate names and other iconography began shortly after the Civil War ended in 1865. But two distinct periods saw significant spikes."^[1] These two spikes coincided with the enaction of Jim Crow laws in the early 1900s, and the civil rights movement of the mid-1950s. ^[1] This correlation speaks to the intentions of the people who built these statues. When people strived to protect white supremacy by law, these monuments became common. They were also built rapidly in a time that featured threats to white supremacy. Given these links, it is difficult to deny that the people who constructed these statues had racist intentions. They wanted to reinforce white supremacy and promote racial subordination. For this reason, we should remove these statues.

[P1] The people who set up controversial statues intended for them to be a means of reinforcing white supremacy, not memorials or simple reminders of history. [P2] For this reason, we should remove these statues.