New Orleans City Council ditches its Confederate past

Six months after a debate over public memorials from the Confederate era began in the aftermath of the deadly mass shooting at a SC church, leaders in New Orleans on Thursday voted to remove four Confederate monuments in the Louisiana city.

The council also voted to remove a bronze figure of the Confederate president that now stands at Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway, and a more local hero, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who straddles a prancing horse at the entrance to City Park.

Gray said the monuments do not reflect the true history of New Orleans, a city he says was mostly on the side of the Union and not the Confederacy.

Councilwoman Stacy Head, the only vote against the measure, said she thought it would do nothing to break down the city’s social and economic barriers.

The four statues were erected between 1884 and 1915, after Reconstruction and during the era of Jim Crow.

Former mayors, including Landrieu’s father, Moon Landrieu, have attempted to have this monument removed or altered. And soon after the shooting, calls to remove it from that state’s Capitol grounds intensified. “He (Landrieu) knows what he needs to do legally”, Foret said.

That event spurred a wave of calls to remove Confederate symbols from public property in Southern states. “These monuments do not now, nor have they ever reflected the history, the strength, the richness, the diversity or the soul of who we are as a people and a city”.

“We, the people of New Orleans, have the power and we have the right to correct these historical wrongs”, Landrieu said.

“Instead of focusing on removing these monuments, we believe the City should create new monuments to honor African-Americans whose contributions to our history and culture were as or more significant”. This monument was briefly stored away from public view, but was restored as an open city marker thanks to a campaign led by Klan leader David Duke.

The ordinance calls the monuments a nuisance because they foster ideologies that undermine the equal protection clause provided by the Constitution and because they support the idea of racial supremacy.

Activist Jerome Brown, an anti- monument speaker, said he wouldn’t leave.

Work on moving the monuments could begin in the next few days, according to the mayor’s office. That park, he said, would be a place where “history can be remembered and not revered”. The city previously has said an anonymous donor has offered to pay for the work.

Council President Jason Williams said, “After a long and thoughtful debate on this issue, I am pleased that we have reached a conclusion”.

The plaintiffs’ move was likely planned well ahead of time and something the Landrieu administration expected, with a city spokesman noting in an afternoon news release that the administration recognized at least one monument, the Battle of Liberty Place obelisk, is protected under a prior federal ruling. Thank you to all citizens who have participated and made your voices heard during this process.

Landrieu says the monuments also work to divide the city.