Charlottesville: Americans hold on to their Confederate statues (poll)

Confederate statues are considered symbols of the[email protected] TY WRIGHT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

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According to a poll, 62% of Americans want Confederate statues to stay in place, believing them to be symbols of American history.

Nearly two in three Americans said they were in favor of statues celebrating figures from the Confederate Southern States, considered to be slave symbols, remaining in place, according to a poll published Thursday* which supports Donald Trump's position. The US president said on Thursday that American history was “ripped to pieces” by the removal of these statues, the fate of which has been the subject of heated controversy in the United States since the events of Charlottesville Saturday.

"Historical Symbols". According to the NPR/PBS and NewsHour/Marist poll, 62% of respondents believe said statues should remain as historical symbols. One of them, that of Robert E. Lee, was precisely at the heart of a rally of far-right groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, which went awry when a white supremacist killed an anti-racism protester. “Only 27% say they should leave,” says public radio NPR.

Democrats divided. In addition, 44% of Black Americans believe that the statues, symbols for many of the slave South of the United States, must remain, against 40% who think the opposite. If the Republicans polled give massive support to the status quo, the Democrats are divided: 44% want to keep them, 47% to see them disappear. Mainly present in the South, there are some 1.500 of these statues.

*The survey was conducted by telephone on August 14 and 15 with a sample of 1.125 people across the United States.

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