New Orleans will not remove Civil War monuments before January hearing

The statues of Lee in Lee Circle, Davis on Jefferson Davis Parkway, Beauregard at the entrance to City Park and the White League monument on Iberville Street have been at the center of controversy since Landrieu declared in June they should be taken down because they celebrate a racist ideology.

A lawsuit is filed in federal court to stop the removal of four historic Confederate monuments in New Orleans.

“If anybody wins here it will be the South, because it is finally rising now that we’re taking these down”, said City Council President Jason Williams.

The decision comes in response to the fatal shooting in a Black church in SC this summer in which the assailant was openly photographed toting the Confederate flag.

Barbier set a hearing in his chambers on January 14 to discuss the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order against removing the statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and P.G.T. Beauregard, as well as the Battle of Liberty Place monument.

Councilwoman Stacy Head was the sole vote against the ordinance. According to her, “destroying public sculptures … is not going to bring real healing”.

“The time surely comes when [justice] must and will be heard”, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at the council meeting.

An anonymous donor will pay to have the monuments taken down.

The city plans to store the statues in a warehouse until a new site can be identified to house them.

Elsewhere, governments and universities in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and SC have removed Confederate symbols from prominent public display.