The most heinous of four Confederate monuments marked for removal by the New Orleans City Council was taken down under the watchful eye of a heavy police presence early Monday morning, April 24.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu praised the ridding of the Liberty Monument as the majority African American city's first order of business, saying, "If there was ever a statue that needed to be taken down, it's that one." The Liberty Monument was erected as a testament to the Confederacy's fight to topple a post-Civil War Union government that had infused itself with some Black representatives. He noted the historic piece of architecture as one built to, "revere white supremacy."
Monday's move comes two years and a series of legal battles after the Council voted to take the monuments down in 2015. With the other three statues/monuments [one of General Robert E. Lee, one of P.G.T. Beauregard, and one of Confederate President Jefferson Davis] are scheduled to come down sooner than later, as the city prepares to invite the world for its 300th year anniversary in 2018.
"The monuments are an aberration," Landrieu said in a statement applauding their removal. "They're actually a denial of our history and they were done in a time when people who still controlled the Confederacy were in charge of this city and it only represents a four-year period in our 1000-year march to where we are today."
Source: twitter.com
