While American public supports police reform, reckoning with Confederate past is more complicated

Washington DC, June 19, 2020

New ABC News/Ipsos polling shows that while a clear majority of Americans support banning chokeholds from police use, removing Confederate statues produces more mixed opinions and most Americans are opposed to the idea of renaming military bases and are opposed to reparations for the descendants of slaves.

Detailed findings:

1. Almost two-thirds of Americans (63%) support ‘banning the use of chokeholds by police officers’.

• This includes a clear majority of all demographic groups, including 71% of African Americans.
• Republicans are split, with 51% supporting a ban and 48% opposing one.

2. A majority of Americans (56%) oppose ‘changing the names of U.S. military bases that are named after Confederate leaders’.

• Independents, who are split on removing statues, are more opposed to renaming bases (59%) than supportive (40%).
• African Americans are also less supportive (67%) of renaming bases.

3. Almost three-quarters of Americans (73%) think the federal government should not ‘pay money to black Americans whose ancestors were slaves as compensations for that slavery’.

• Only about one in eight white Americans (14%) support reparations compared to three-quarters of African Americans (72%).
• Democrats are split on reparations (54% should, 45% should not), with the majority of Republicans (94%) and Independents (82%) opposed.  

About the Study

This ABC News/Ipsos Poll was conducted June 17 to June 18, 2020 by Ipsos Public Affairs KnowledgePanel® – a division of Ipsos. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 727 general population adults age 18 or older.

The survey was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, which is the largest and most well-established online panel that is representative of the adult US population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in these households are invited to join and participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®. For those potential panel members who do not already have internet access, Ipsos provides a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methods, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and provide fully representative online samples to the research community.

The study was conducted in both English and Spanish. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race, education, Census region, metropolitan status, household income, and party identification. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2019 March supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS). Party ID benchmarks are from recent ABC News/Washington Post telephone polls. The weighting categories were as follows:

• Gender (Male/Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45–59, and 60+)
• Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White/Non-Hispanic, Black/Non-Hispanic, Other or 2+ Races/Non-Hispanic, Hispanic)
• Education (Less than High School, High School graduate, Some College, Bachelor and beyond)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
• Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
• Party ID (Democrat, Republican, Independent, Other/None)

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.25. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

About Ipsos

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