Symbols of Oppression: The Role of Confederate Monuments in the Great Migration

Francesco Ferlenga

No 1520, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: Dominant groups have long used public monuments to project their power and narrative. How do divisive monuments affect where dissenting groups choose to live? I show that the construction of Confederate monuments in the U.S. South—supported by whites and opposed by Black Americans—reduced Black population shares via out-migration. To isolate the causal effect of monuments from local ideology, I employ an instrumental variable strategy based on connection to a key monument producer. An online experiment corroborates the historical analysis, showing that Black respondents today are less likely to accept job offers in hypothetical cities visually associated with Confederate monuments.

Keywords: discrimination; divisive symbols; monuments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J15 J18 N32 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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