1:42 Many more across the nation were renamed or taken down following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis. In the seven months following the Floyd killing, more symbols were removed from public property than in the past four years combined. According to a count from the Southern Poverty Law Center, 168 Confederate symbols came down in 2020, but 704 monuments are still standing. SPLC Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks says some states made it more difficult to remove monuments following a watershed event in South Carolina. “The flag came down in Charleston in 2015, so the southern states feared their states would be targeted next and implemented these preservation laws soon after that," Brooks told WKU Public Radio.