They’re exploring all options in the event the New Orleans City Council approves the removal of the monuments, which it is expected to do so at its next meeting.
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But the New Orleans Advocate reports that Governor Bobby Jindal may attempt to block the removal of the monuments.
The four monuments are statues of generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and a 35-foot-tall obelisk commemorating the Battle of Liberty Place, a three-day rebellion by Confederate veterans against Reconstruction authorities in 1874.
The Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC) Public Hearing is today from 1:00pm – 3:00pm in the New Orleans City Council Chambers.
Another public hearing has already been scheduled to discuss the monuments.
The recommendations from both commissions will go back to the city council.
In the last few months, there has been a move in the South to divorce from Confederate images.
Ashley Merlin, author of “Statuesque New Orleans”, a book of photographs of the city, said that the monuments offered an important lesson in history and art.
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Other opponents argue that moving the statues is an effort to hide the history of the South. She said the issue should be considered by an independent panel of historians and civil rights leaders in light of the fact that many members of the commissions were appointed by the mayor. James Logan with the Louisiana Landmarks Society said the statues should remain and “preserved as artifacts”. Morse said the discussion isn’t so much about the men represented by the monuments but “the ideology that caused their monuments to be erected in the first place”. Each statue was evaluated separately by the 12-member board to determine whether or not the monument was a “nuisance”, reported WDSU New Orleans. Confederate symbols have come down in response to a mass shooting in June inside a South Carolina church that killed nine African-American worshippers and is believed to have been racially motivated.
