The city of New Orleans has a plan to remove four monuments to the Confederate States of America, deciding that monuments to the racist cause of the Confederacy belong in a museum, not in the city.
"Efforts to remove four Confederate monuments commenced early Monday morning (April 24), as crews and police gathered around the Battle of Liberty Place monument downtown around 2 a.m. to begin dismantling the first of four statues eyed for removal by the city," reports Beau Evans.
The action required police snipers and a barricade around the monument as crews removed the monument. The monument's removal was made possible by a 2015 ordinance backed by Mayor Landrieu. In a press release to announce the Battle of Liberty Place monument, Mayor Landrieu “The removal of these statues sends a clear and unequivocal message to the people of New Orleans and the nation: New Orleans celebrates our diversity, inclusion and tolerance,”
"Mayor Mitch Landrieu has called the Battle of Liberty Place monument the 'most offensive, of the four up for removal," according to Evans. "Erected in 1891, it commemorates the Crescent City White League-attempt to overthrow the city's Reconstructionist government after the Civil War."
Nicole Chavez and Emanuella Grinberg also reported the news of the late-night/early-morning monument removal for CNN. German Lopez also followed up on the news for a post on Vox, also providing a recap of that website's past arguments to connect the Confederacy inextricably from the institution of slavery.
FULL STORY: Removal of the first of four New Orleans Confederate monuments begins with Liberty Place
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