As demonstrations across the United States draw attention to police brutality and racial injustice, many protesters have reignited the debate over the historical figures the country chooses to memorialize. Some protests in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and others have included people toppling or defacing monuments for Confederate generals and soldiers who fought the Civil War to preserve slavery.

Those post-war tributes are associated with larger systems of white supremacy, protesters have argued, and that’s why they have to come down. In some cases, memorials to some of the country’s most significant figures, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, have been targeted because those men were slaveholders.