New Orleans Will Remove Confederate Monuments

They include monuments that honor Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard, one for President Jefferson Davis, as well as a monument to the postwar battle of Liberty Place.

By early afternoon, a raucous debate took hold of New Orleans City Council chambers, where constituents with disparate views expressed opinions on whether to remove the Confederate monuments in the hours leading up to a vote, which was 6-to-1 in favor of removal.

Head suggested that the call to remove the monuments came from the top down to which Landrieu replied, “I didn’t create this tension”. “I’m not going to let this happen under my administration”.

“This process began with a man of privilege apologizing for slavery and moving to remove four monuments decided upon by him”. “I would say since Generation X and onwards, the connection is not there”.

Before the council voted, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who has discussed the move at length in the months since the deadly Charleston church shootings, said to the council members, “The time surely comes when (justice) must and will be heard”. In Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe called for the removal of the flag from state-issued license plates. “I felt disrespected”, she said.

Brossett said the monuments are symbols of oppression.

Barrow said he and others will sue if necessary to keep the monuments where they are. He was one of dozens of pastors from a cross-section of faiths that demanded the removal of the monuments in August. “He (Landrieu) knows what he needs to do legally”, Foret said.

The most controversial is an 1891 obelisk honoring an attempted insurrection by the Crescent City White League known as the Battle of Liberty Place.

FILE -In this September 2, 2015 photo, the Robert E. Lee Monument is seen in Lee Circle in New Orleans.

Their statues were erected in the 1910s.

“As a society, we can no longer tolerate living underneath their shadows”, Ramsey said.

Landrieu said the monuments reinforce the Confederate ideology of slavery, limit city progress and divide the city.

This issue didn’t cause division in the city, but “have cast a light on issues that have festered for many decades”, she added. “If we are mad about taking down monuments to rapists and murderers, that’s up to you”, said Councilman James Gray.

The tipping point for Mayor Mitch Landrieu was Charleston.

The vote followed a contentious council meeting, which was a reflection of a contentious conversation over the past year. “Thank you, Jesus”, Head said.

It also argues that removing the statues of Lee, Beauregard and Davis violates the Veterans Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act.

“This symbolic place in our city should represent a great New Orleanian, or it should be an open space that represents our latest prevail and how people helped us, not a person who had nothing to do with our city and who indeed fought against the United States of America and lost”, Marsalis told WDSU. “In fact, they disrespect them”. “Williams said, “‘If anybody wins here, it will be the South, because it is finally rising”. Their ordinance has sparked passionate responses for and against these symbols, and both sides will get one more say at a special council meeting before Thursday’s vote.