Confederate monuments have been taken down across the United States of America, whether by local leaders or by demonstrators, in the wake of protests over police brutality against Black Americans. But while there are renewed efforts to remove public symbols paying tribute to the entity that launched the United States into a Civil War, they have been accompanied by a reckoning to understand why and how these symbols have been able to remain as fixtures in so many communities.Black men and women have shared stories about how they played in a park named after a Confederate leader or would drive by a statue commemorating the Confederacy while on their way home. The Southern Poverty Law Center published a report in 2019 titled “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy” that took a look into how many Confederate symbols still exist in the United States more than 150 years since the demise of the Confederate States of America. The report also touched on how there are laws in place across the country that are shielding Confederate monuments in an effort to prevent their removal. Here’s a look at states that have laws that are being used in this manner. Alabama State lawmakers in Alabama passed the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act in 2017, which prohibits local governments from removing, altering or renaming monuments more than 40 years old. This would mean monuments erected before 1977 would be protected by this state law. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the state of Alabama has a total of 48 monuments commemorating the Confederacy that were dedicated before 1977. The law has been used recently in the wake of a Confederate monument being removed. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered the removal of a 115-year-old monument in Birmingham’s Linn Park on June 1 after protesters attempted to remove the monument themselves the previous day. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit against the City of Birmingham, saying the removal of the monument violated the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act. The violation of the Act is punishable by a one-time fine of $25,000. GeorgiaUp until 2001, the Confederate emblem was part of Georgia’s state flag. Led by then Gov. Roy Barnes, there was a movement to replace the flag during the 2001 legislative session. The segregation-era state flag was changed as part of a compromise, but in that compromise was a statute that protects all Confederate monuments in Georgia. The statute was referenced during calls to remove Confederate faces off Stone Mountain. The law states it is unlawful to remove any symbol honoring the United States and the Confederacy. In 2019, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law that further protects monuments, including those dedicated to the Confederacy. The law bans moving monuments from a prominent location to a museum and allows local governments to sue those who vandalize monuments for up to three times the value of the damages. Kemp signed the bill into law next door to a plantation built by slave labor. MississippiDating back to 1972, Mississippi state lawmakers have had laws on the books to protect Confederate monuments. The Mississippi Code of 1972 stated structures, including “War Between the States” (Civil War), cannot be relocated, removed or defaced. Mississippi was the last state in the country to have the Confederate emblem on its flag. In the wake of the unrest in the country over the month of June in response to protests calling out systemic racism and police brutality, lawmakers moved to change the state flag and remove the Confederate emblem.North Carolina North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper stated the following when announcing he was relocating Confederate monuments in Raleigh: “If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal we could have avoided the dangerous incidents.” Cooper was referring to a state law passed in 2015 by the legislature and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. The law, signed three months after the Charleston church shooting, prevents the removal, relocation or altering of monuments, memorials, plaques and other markets that are on public property. “Our monuments and memorials remind us of North Carolina’s complete story,” McCrory said in a news release. “The protection of our heritage is a matter of statewide significance to ensure that our rich history will always be preserved and remembered for generations to come.” The reason Cooper was able to relocate Confederate monuments in Raleigh was because he cited “public safety” as the reason after protesters tried to take down two centuries-old statues. South Carolina South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union and was home to the first battle of the American Civil War. Since 2000, the South Carolina Heritage Act has been cited as a way to protect Confederate monuments. The act was an amendment to a code of laws in 1976. The act “prohibits the removal of... Confederate flags on the statehouse grounds and the removal, changing, or renaming of any local or state monument, marker, memorial, school, or street erected or named in honor of the Confederacy or the Civil Rights Movement without the enactment of a joint resolution of the general assembly approving same adopted by a two-thirds vote.” Supporters of the act say the law allows them to honor and recognize the history of South Carolina. "The monuments don't stand for what you and I would call today racism and all the conflict that's going on," said Terry Rude, the chairman of the board of the Museum and Library of Confederate History. "That's why we hold the Heritage Act as a good thing."Tennessee State lawmakers in 2013 enacted the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which “prohibits the removal, relocation or renaming of a memorial that is, or is located on public property.”The act states citizens must petition the Tennessee Historical Commission for a waiver from the prohibition. The commission would vote on whether to grant or deny that waiver. In 2018, the act was amended to include that historic organizations could petition the commission to “transfer ownership to the historic organization and/or relocate a memorial with the consent of the public entity exercising control of the memorial.” The amendment was done in response to Memphis officials selling two public parks that were home to Confederate statues to a nonprofit, which removed the statues. Virginia Richmond, Virginia was the site of the Confederate capital. The state of Virginia is also home to the most symbols that honor the Confederacy in the country. The move to remove statues honoring Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in Charlottesville was what prompted several demonstrations, including the deadly protest on the weekend of Aug. 11, 2017. Since that fateful day three years ago, lawmakers have been pushing to amend state protections for Confederate memorials. Up until this year, memorials to the Confederacy could not be taken down by local officials. In April, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law a measure that amended Virginia's code to give localities permission to remove Confederate monuments after the measure passed the Democratic-controlled Virginia House and Senate in March. The law went into effect Wednesday, which was marked by the removal of a Stonewall Jackson statue in Richmond. The removal of the statue came in the wake of multiple demonstrations in Richmond involving Confederate monuments. Are Confederate monuments protected by federal law?President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order on protecting monuments in response to protesters vandalizing mostly Confederate monuments, one of which was the Albert Pike statue, the only Confederate statue in Washington, DC. "I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues - and combatting recent Criminal Violence," the President wrote. "Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!"The executive order cited the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation Act, which was passed bipartisanly by Congress in 2003. The act states that anyone who “injures or destroys, or attempts to injure or destroy, any structure, plaque, statue, or other monument on public property commemorating the service of any person or persons in the armed forces of the United States shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.” Therefore, according to the language of the law, Confederate monuments do not apply. The executive order Trump signed directed the Justice Department to prioritize “the investigation and prosecution” of those who damage federally-owned monuments. The Southern Poverty Law Center said in the report that monument protection measures have been discussed in Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Louisiana, but those legislative proposals, one of which required a public vote in Louisiana, failed.