Reclaiming the public space

Objective The spread and energy of protests against racial injustice and police brutality throughout summer 2020 featured the forcible removal of monuments by members of the public. In this article, we argue that these “publicly initiated” monument removals are a novel tactic in the protest repertoire that can be differentiated from the removal of monuments by public officials. Methods Using data from the Confederate Monuments Project, we analyze whether factors such as protest momentum and state repression of demonstrators differentiate removal type. Results We find that monuments in locations with a greater number of protests in June 2020 were more likely to be removed by the public. We do not find support for a relationship between the use of state repression and public monument removal. Conclusion Our findings suggest that scholars should continue to pursue the distinction between these two types of monuments, particularly in regards to the study of protest and political mobilization.