blackascoal
The Force is With Me
A statue honoring white supremacists who killed members of the city’s post-Civil War integrated police force was the first to come down.
New Orleans has taken a first major step in fulfilling its 2015 promise to tear down four prominent Confederate statues, an attempt to scrub the city’s public spaces of what many see as white supremacist symbols.
City workers began removing the Battle of Liberty Place statue at 1:25 a.m. Monday in an effort to avoid disruption by protesters who want the monuments to stay, reported The Associated Press. Erected in 1891, the obelisk honors members of the Crescent City White League, a group of all-white Confederate veterans who killed members of the city’s post-Civil War integrated police force.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) tweeted that the statues*“do not represent the diversity” of New Orleans.
Statues commemorating Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard as well as Jefferson Davis (the first ― and only ― president of the Confederate States of America) will be removed in the coming days. All four of the structures will be relocated to a museum or another “place where they can be put in historical context,” according to a press release issued by the mayor’s office*
The city’s decision to tear down the statues was prompted by the 2015 massacre at historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine black churchgoers. Nearly six months after the attack, the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 in favor of removing the monuments.
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Many residents of New Orleans, a predominantly African-American city, have spoken out in support of the move. Landrieu first proposed the idea and it gained momentous support from the city’s black residents, though legal backlash prevented the structures from being removed sooner.
New Orleans is the latest Southern institution to push back against public monuments honoring their Confederate roots, a movement that gained force following the 2015 church shooting.
Soon after, South Carolina passed legislation to remove Confederate flags from its State House grounds. Alabama and Mississippi also decided to remove the banners.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...4b00fa7de15a674?xt8&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
New Orleans has taken a first major step in fulfilling its 2015 promise to tear down four prominent Confederate statues, an attempt to scrub the city’s public spaces of what many see as white supremacist symbols.
City workers began removing the Battle of Liberty Place statue at 1:25 a.m. Monday in an effort to avoid disruption by protesters who want the monuments to stay, reported The Associated Press. Erected in 1891, the obelisk honors members of the Crescent City White League, a group of all-white Confederate veterans who killed members of the city’s post-Civil War integrated police force.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) tweeted that the statues*“do not represent the diversity” of New Orleans.
Statues commemorating Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard as well as Jefferson Davis (the first ― and only ― president of the Confederate States of America) will be removed in the coming days. All four of the structures will be relocated to a museum or another “place where they can be put in historical context,” according to a press release issued by the mayor’s office*
The city’s decision to tear down the statues was prompted by the 2015 massacre at historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine black churchgoers. Nearly six months after the attack, the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 in favor of removing the monuments.
--
Many residents of New Orleans, a predominantly African-American city, have spoken out in support of the move. Landrieu first proposed the idea and it gained momentous support from the city’s black residents, though legal backlash prevented the structures from being removed sooner.
New Orleans is the latest Southern institution to push back against public monuments honoring their Confederate roots, a movement that gained force following the 2015 church shooting.
Soon after, South Carolina passed legislation to remove Confederate flags from its State House grounds. Alabama and Mississippi also decided to remove the banners.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...4b00fa7de15a674?xt8&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009