New Orleans Votes to Remove Four Confederate Monuments

Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederacy president Jefferson Davis, as well as an obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place. New Orleans is finally exhibiting the political will needed to give them a proper burial. Many council members in their closing remarks hoped the vote would be unanimous. The city council held a hearing last week to discuss the issue, and advocates on both sides made their voices heard outside the council chambers waving signs and flags.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu has come out for removing the monuments.

She said the issue was dividing the city, not uniting it. “I think all we will be left with is pain and division”.

“Most of these monuments don’t honor New Orleanians”, said Council President Jason Williams. The discussion included a testy exchange between the mayor and Councilwoman Stacy Head, the only member who voted against the ordinance.

“It will not improve the socioeconomic balance of the city”, she said.

Those in favor of keeping the statues have said they represent an integral part of the city’s history and fabric, comparable to the buildings that preservationists have sought to protect for generations. An inscription added in 1932 said the Yankees withdrew federal troops and “recognized white supremacy in the South” after the group challenged Louisiana’s biracial government after the Civil War.

SC removed the Confederate flag from its state house and several major retailers stopped selling items carrying the “stars and bars” red, white and blue Civil War-era battle flag. Dylann Roof venerated the Confederated Battle Flag. And soon after the shooting, calls to remove it from that state’s Capitol grounds intensified.

The plaintiffs’ move was likely planned well ahead of time, considering the scope of the lawsuit, and something the Landrieu administration expected.

This includes removing the statue of “Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that has stood at the center of a traffic circle for 131 years”. “He (Landrieu) knows what he needs to do legally”, Foret said.

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

“I think that federal court and the federal judges here in New Orleans will decline to intercede or get involved in this debate because the law is pretty clear the governing body of New Orleans has the authority to do what they did today”.

The ordinance approved by the council declares the Confederate monuments “nuisances” and calls for them to be removed.

The statues are unconstitutional, said the proposed ordinance marked Calendar No. 31,082. Landrieu requested the vote to banish specters of racism.

But opponents of the plan steered away from any racial argument. Some residents are screaming to keep them.