Mayor: Move 4 Monuments of ‘Fight for Bondage and Supremacy’

Mayor Landrieu has said he doesn’t want to ignore history, but he also doesn’t think some aspects of our history need to be as prominently displayed.

Landrieu formally asked the New Orleans City Council to start the process to remove four statues erected to honor Confederate leaders from their prominent positions throughout the city.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu told the council at a public hearing that history must be remembered to avoid repetition but the statues should be put “in their proper place and context”.

Landrieu wants officials to consider replacing those monuments with others that reflect the city’s diversity and future as it approaches the 300th anniversary in 2018.

The commission would be asked to get comment and advice from the City Planning Commission, Arts Council and general public while reviewing the monument and its placement at Canal Street and South Jefferson Davis Parkway.

Also targeted is the equestrian statue of Louisiana native and Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, located at the entrance to New Orleans City Park and close to the annual Jazz Festival. Those calls came after Dylan Roof allegedly shot and killed nine African-Americans inside the predominantly black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., church last month.

Cantrell’s request states that recent acts of racially motivated violence have caused for several states to review “the display of statues, flags, and symbols linked to both the Confederacy and to white supremacy on public grounds”.

“For the record, all seven council members co-authored this – the entire City Council”, President Jason Rogers Williams said. That monument was relocated to an obscure corner behind the Westin Hotel at the foot of Iberville Street in the early ’90s. After that, a city council vote would determine whether the monuments are a public nuisance – and if so, could be removed.

Landrieu plans to address the council around noon today. Resolutions “generally express the will or sentiment of the council or request some action”, according to the council’s public guide.