Lee Monument is seen in Lee Circle in New Orleans.
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The Council handed down the 6-1 vote Thursday, our sister station WGNO reported. T. Beauregard, who designed the Confederate battle flag that is finally facing retirement in some cities after years of flying in the face of common sense. Federal occupation lasted for three years following the battle of Liberty Place. “The Confederacy, you see, was on the wrong side of history and humanity”, he said Thursday, according to The Times-Picayune. Advocate staff photo by MATTHEW HINTON-Advocate staff photo by MATTHEW HINTON-Council member-at-large Jason Williams hugs Jerome Smith, a Freedom Rider, after after the council voted to approve the removal of Confederate monuments in City Council chambers in New Orleans, La.
But the statues won’t go quietly. Some residents screamed to keep them.
The tipping point for Mayor Mitch Landrieu was Charleston.
“The word Confederate has become a buzzword for ugly”, said Pierre McGraw, the president of the Monumental Task Committee Inc., the monuments group. And professional golfer Gerry “Bubba” Watson even said he would paint over the Confederate flag on the roof of his vehicle, the famous General Lee 01, which was featured in The Dukes of Hazzard TV series.
“I don’t need Mitch Landrieu to remind me who I am”, Gray said, adding that he is gratified that Landrieu proposed the ordinance. Thank you to all citizens who have participated and made your voices heard during this process.
And white the city has said private funds will cover the expected price tag of $170,000 – Landrieu has not said who is providing the money – to remove the statues, the lawsuit argues that the city violated its policy to accept such donations. Landrieu requested a vote to banish specters of racism.
The monuments don’t represent history but a “false version” created to “reinforce a very specific ideology”, he said.
But objectors to the plan steered away from any racial argument.
In addition to Landrieu and the city, Anthony Foxx, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation; the U.S. Department of Transportation; Matthew Welbes, executive director of the Federal Transit Administration; the Federal Transit Administration; the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority are named as defendants.
But one prominent artist who wants the figures gone, has also skirted the issue of race. 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. It was originally called Tivoli Circle and bears that name again today. Most Mardi Gras parades snake right past it.
New Orleans is far from the only city in the South that has placed defenders of slavery on pedestals as part of their civic landscapes. By then the monuments to Lee, Beauregard, and Davis had been dedicated.
The most imposing has had a commanding position over St. Charles Avenue since 1884: A 16-foot-tall bronze statue of Lee stands atop a 60-foot-high Doric marble column, which itself rises over granite slabs on an earthen mound.
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Landrieu says the monuments also work to divide the city.
